le-napkin in
the air, "we are people of distinction, and under the circumstances our
comings and goings are naturally chronicled. We shall have a reception
in town, I promise you."

I understood by then what he had been doing, and I was almost as much
ashamed as if I had done it myself. He had taken the trouble to blaze
the whole affair in the newspapers; and when, an hour later, the train
which brought the London journals down to Dover arrived at the station,
I was there with him to meet it. He was so obviously satisfied with his
own action that it would have been useless to say a word to him. And yet
I fairly boiled over when I saw the travesty of the whole adventure with
which he had duped the _Times_. One would have supposed from the story
with which he had primed the representative of that journal that we
had run every conceivable kind of risk, and had, by our own courage and
cunning, surmounted every obstacle the wit of man could compass. All
this was absurd enough and annoying enough, but the introduction of
Miss Rossano's name into the narrative looked altogether wanton and
unwarranted, and, I dare say, now that I can recall the whole thing in
cool blood, that I was more disturbed and angry than I need have been.
Brunow took what I had to say with imperturbable good-humor, and was
altogether satisfied with himself.

"We shall have a crowd to meet us," he prophesied. "There are thousands
of Italian refugees in London at this minute, and they will all be there
to cheer the illustrious Fyffe, and the no less illustrious Brunow. All
the exiled noblemen who live in Hatton Garden, and make London stand and
deliver at the barrel-organ's mouth, all the dukes and counts who shave
and teach dancing, and sell penny ices, and keep cheap restaurants, will
be there to welcome their delivered compatriot. The railway terminus
will be odorous with garlic and the humanity of Italy. Fyffe, my dear
fellow, we shall have a glorious day."

When I told him, as I did, that he was a thick-skinned idiot and
braggart, he looked amazed. But I left him to his surprise, and took
what precautions I could against the newspaper falling into the hands of
Miss Rossano. We all travelled to London together at her request, and
I had some difficulty in persuading Brunow that I was in earnest in
insisting that she should see nothing of the nonsense he had caused to
be written and printed about our expedition.

"My dear fellow," he declared, "the m