fiano combated this opinion.

"We shall all be wanted in Italy," he argued, "and Count Rossano will be
more needed there than any of us. The mere knowledge that he is again
on Italian soil, and that he is amply provided with arms, will bring the
people about him anywhere."

The discussion did not last long, and it was so plainly to be seen from
the beginning that the count was bent upon carrying out his own plan,
and Brunow, Ruffiano, and I were so strongly of opinion that he had
chosen the most useful course, that opposition vanished very early. The
count delegated his authority as president of the council to Ruffiano,
who, in spite of his outside singularities, was a man of much force of
character, and, next to the count himself, commanded most completely the
respect of the party.

Ruffiano, the count, and I walked to Lady Rollin-son's house together,
and Brunow came half-way. As we walked together behind the two elders,
who were deep in conversation, we found little to say to each other;
but at last Brunow put his arm through mine in quite the old friendly
fashion, and brought me almost to a standstill.

"I mustn't go any farther, old fellow," he said. "I shall get used to
things by-and-by, I dare say, but it was a little bit of a facer at
first, and I haven't quite got over it yet. Look here, Fyffe, we've
always been friends, don't let what's happened make any difference
between us."

I don't think I ever felt so well disposed to him as I did at that
minute. I was victor, for one thing, and it was easy to make allowance
for the man who had lost; and, apart from that, his withdrawal had
been so generous and candid that I should have been a brute not to have
accepted it instantly. I shook hands with him with a warmer cordiality
than I had ever experienced towards him, and with a higher opinion of
his manhood. It was the last time I ever took him by the hand, poor
Brunow! and though it is a hundred chances to one in my mind now that he
was at that very moment plotting to betray me, I can't somehow find it
in my heart to feel so bitter against him as I should have felt against
a stronger man. He never seemed to me to be altogether responsible, like
other people, and the payment of his treachery was so swift and dreadful
that the memory of it breeds a sort of half-forgiveness in my mind.

There were scores of hard business details to be thought of and talked
about, and we three conspirators sat together until the n