al--a doomed man on the brink of the grave.
Leave this light converse and frivolous jesting--and, while there is
time, prepare for death!"

But I bit my lips and kept stern silence. Often, too, I felt disposed
to seize him by the throat, and, declaring my identity, accuse him of
his treachery to his face, but I always remembered and controlled
myself. One point in his character I knew well--I had known it of
old--this was his excessive love of good wine. I aided and abetted him
in this weakness, and whenever he visited me I took care that he should
have his choice of the finest vintages. Often after a convivial evening
spent in my apartments with a few other young men of his class and
caliber, he reeled out of my presence, his deeply flushed face and
thick voice bearing plain testimony as to his condition. On these
occasions I used to consider with a sort of fierce humor how Nina would
receive him--for though she saw no offense in the one kind of vice she
herself practiced, she had a particular horror of vulgarity in any
form, and drunkenness was one of those low failings she specially
abhorred.

"Go to your lady-love, mon beau Silenus!" I would think, as I watched
him leaving my hotel with a couple of his boon companions, staggering
and laughing loudly as he went, or singing the last questionable
street-song of the Neapolitan bas-peuple. "You are in a would-be
riotous and savage mood--her finer animal instincts will revolt from
you, as a lithe gazelle would fly from the hideous gambols of a
rhinoceros. She is already afraid of you--in a little while she will
look upon you with loathing and disgust--tant pis pour vous, tant mieux
pour moi!"

I had of course attained the position of ami intime at the Villa
Romani. I was welcome there at any hour--I could examine and read my
own books in my own library at leisure (what a privilege was mine); I
could saunter freely through the beautiful gardens accompanied by
Wyvis, who attended me as a matter of course; in short, the house was
almost at my disposal, though I never passed a night under its roof. I
carefully kept up my character as a prematurely elderly man, slightly
invalided by a long and ardous career in far-off foreign lands, and I
was particularly prudent in my behavior toward my wife before Ferrari.
Never did I permit the least word or action on my part that could
arouse his jealousy or suspicion. I treated her with a sort of parental
kindness and reserve, but she