of, followed by his mother and Bruno.

David Rossi took the boy into his arms and tried to dispel the gloom of
his own spirits in the child's joy at the illuminations.

"Ever see 'luminations before, Uncle David?" said Joseph.

"Once, dear, but that was long ago and far away. I was a boy myself in
those days, and there was a little girl with me then who was no bigger
than you are now. But it's growing cold, there's frost in the air,
besides it's late, and little boys must go to bed."

"Well, God is God, and the Pope is His Prophet," said Bruno, when Elena
and Joseph had gone indoors. "It was like day! You could see the
lightning conductor over the Pope's apartment! Pshew!" blowing puffs of
smoke from his twisted cigar. "Won't keep the lightning off, though."

"Bruno!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Donna Roma's father would be Prince Volonna?"

"Yes, the last prince of the old papal name. When the Volonna estates
were confiscated, the title really lapsed, but old Vampire got the
lands."

"Did you ever hear that he bore any other name during the time he was in
exile?"

"Sure to, but there was no trial and nothing was known. They all changed
their names, though."

"Why ... what...." said David Rossi in an unsteady voice.

"Why?" said Bruno. "Because they were all condemned in Italy, and the
foreign countries were told to turn them out. But what am I talking
about? You know all that better than I do, sir. Didn't your old friend
go under a false name?"

"Very likely--I don't know," said David Rossi, in a voice that testified
to jangled nerves.

"Did he ever tell you, sir?"

"I can't say that he ever.... Certainly the school of revolution has
always had villains enough, and perhaps to prevent treachery...."

"You may say so! The devil has the run of the world, even in England.
But I'm surprised your old friend, being like a father to you, didn't
tell you--at the end anyway...."

"Perhaps he intended to--and then perhaps...."

David Rossi put his hand to his brow as if in pain and perplexity, and
began again to walk backward and forward.

A screamer in the piazza below cried "_Trib-un-a!_" and Bruno said:

"That's early! What's up, I wonder? I'll go down and get a paper."

Darkness had by this time re-invaded the sky, and the stars looked down
from their broad dome, clear, sweet, white, and serene, putting to shame
by their immortal solemnity the poor little mimes, the paltry
puppet-shows of the human jackstraws wh