, and carried his bodily
measurements in my mind when I went out again to an outfitter's, taking
Hinge with me to translate. I bought underclothing, and a suit of
clothes; and I took back a shoemaker with me, and when the-count had
dressed sent the man to him to try on a number of pairs of boots he had
brought with him in a basket.

When the Conte di Rossano, clothed like himself for the first time in
twenty years, came into the room in which breakfast was set for us, I
hardly recognized him, though I myself had taken part in bringing about
the transformation which had been worked in him. He came in alert and
erect, and for a mere second looked every inch a gentleman. But the
broad light to which he had been so long a stranger made him blink, and
sent his hand to his eyes. He came across to the table with a faltering
and uncertain tread, and with a curious crouch in his walk. It struck me
for the first time then, but I saw it so often afterwards that I almost
ceased to notice it at all. For an instant pride and liberty had buoyed
him so that he could present a passing semblance of what he had been,
but the change fell upon him as quick as lightning, and no flash of
lightning could have blighted him more dreadfully. He approached the
table shuffling, with bent head, and purblind eyes peering this way and
that. I placed a chair for him, but he seemed uncertain what to do
with it until I helped him to seat himself. The filthy floor of that
unspeakable dungeon had been his only seat and couch for a score of
years.

He sat crouching at the table as if hugging himself together for warmth,
though the day was balmy, and the sun was bright and hot outside. When
he drank he took his cup in both hands as an ape would have done, and as
he tasted the fragrant coffee he made an animal noise of satisfaction.
He caught himself at this, and a swift tide of crimson passed over his
face; but a minute later the old felon habit was upon him again, and
I saw him tearing his bread with his teeth in quite the jail-bird way.
Looking at his thin hands, I saw that he had clipped his nails; but the
skin had overgrown them, and had split into ragged fragments. I caught
him peering at them in a distasteful way, and when he detected me in the
act of watching him he hid them beneath the table.

We were still at table, when there came a sudden bang at the door, and
without waiting for any reply in walked a gentleman with every sign of
the public fun