doled with Mademoiselle Colomba, touched on the
danger connected with strong emotions, blamed the custom of composing
funeral dirges, which the very talent of the _voceratrice_ rendered
the more harrowing to her auditors, skilfully slipped in a mild reproof
concerning the tendency of the improvisation just concluded, and then,
changing his tone--

"M. della Rebbia," he said, "I have many messages for you from your
English friends. Miss Nevil sends her affectionate regards to your
sister. I have a letter for you from her."

"A letter from Miss Nevil!" cried Orso.

"Unluckily I have not got it with me. But you shall have it within five
minutes. Her father has not been well. For a little while we were afraid
he had caught one of our terrible fevers. Luckily he is all right again,
as you will observe for yourself, for I fancy you will see him very
soon."

"Miss Nevil must have been very much alarmed!"

"Fortunately she did not become aware of the danger till it was quite
gone by. M. della Rebbia, Miss Nevil has talked to me a great deal about
you and about your sister."

Orso bowed.

"She has a great affection for you both. Under her charming appearance,
and her apparent frivolity, a fund of good sense lies hidden."

"She is a very fascinating person," said Orso.

"I have come here, monsieur, almost at her prayer. Nobody is better
acquainted than I with a fatal story which I would fain not have to
recall to you. As M. Barricini is still the mayor of Pietranera, and
as I am prefect of the department, I need hardly tell you what weight
I attach to certain suspicions which, if I am rightly informed, some
incautious individuals have communicated to you, and which you, I know,
have spurned with the indignation your position and your character would
have led me to expect."

"Colomba," said Orso, moving uneasily to his chair. "You are very tired.
You had better go to bed."

Colomba shook her head. She had recovered all her usual composure, and
her burning eyes were fixed on the prefect.

"M. Barricini," the prefect continued, "is exceedingly anxious to put an
end to the sort of enmity . . . or rather, the condition of uncertainty,
existing between yourself and him. . . . On my part, I should be
delighted to see you both in those relations of friendly intercourse
appropriate to people who certainly ought to esteem each other."

"Monsieur," replied Orso in a shaking voice, "I have never charged
Barricini with my fat