rust his hands behind him, and with head forward, in that curious
attitude so reminiscent of a bird of prey, he stepped slowly back to his
place at the table-head. Slowly his cheeks resumed their normal tint.

"Very well, sir," he said, addressing the officer. "Inform his
excellency that I shall obey the summons of the Duke's magnificence
without delay."

The officer bowed to Giuliana, took his leave, and went, old Busio
escorting him.

"A summons from the Duke?" cried Giuliana, and then the storm broke

"Ay," he answered, grimly quiet, "a summons from the Duke." And he
tossed it across the table to her.

I saw that fateful document float an instant in the air, and then,
thrown out of poise by the blob of wax, swoop slanting to her lap.

"It will come no doubt as a surprise to you," he growled; and upon that
his hard-held passion burst all bonds that he could impose upon it.
His great bony fist crashed down upon the board and swept a precious
Venetian beaker to the ground, where it burst into a thousand atoms,
spreading red wine like a bloodstain upon the floor.

"Said I not that this rascal Cardinal would make a clear field for
himself? Said I not so?" He laughed shrill and fiercely. "He would send
your husband packing as he has sent his other rivals. O, there is a
stipend waiting--a stipend of three hundred ducats yearly that shall be
made into six hundred presently, and all for my complaisance, all that I
may be a joyous and content cornuto!"

He strode to the window cursing horribly, whilst Giuliana sat white of
face with lips compressed and heaving bosom, her eyes upon her plate.

"My Lord Cardinal and his Duke may take themselves together to Hell ere
I obey the summons that the one has sent me at the desire of the other.
Here I stay to guard what is my own."

"You are a fool," said Giuliana at length, "and a knave, too, for you
insult me without cause."

"Without cause? O, without cause, eh? By the Host! Yet you would not
have me stay?"

"I would not have you gaoled, which is what will happen if you disobey
the Duke's magnificence," said she.

"Gaoled?" quoth he, of a sudden trembling in the increasing intensity of
his passion. "Caged, perhaps--to die of hunger and thirst and exposure,
like that poor wretch Domenico who perished yesterday, at last, because
he dared to speak the truth. Gesu!" he groaned. "O, miserable me!" And
he sank into a chair.

But the next instant he was up again, and his lon