d along,
candle in hand, like some over-grown orang-outang. At length they
reached the staircase, where there was a little more light, and here he
found Calabressa waiting to receive him. Calabressa seemed overjoyed.

"Yes, yes, my dear Monsieur Brand, you have arrived opportunely. You
also will remonstrate with that beautiful child for having fallen out
with her old friend Calabressa. Think of it! one who would wear his
knees out to serve her; and when I go to the hotel--"

"One word, Calabressa," said Brand, as he followed him into a small
empty room. "Tell me, is Lind in Naples?"

"Assuredly. He has petitioned for a year's grace: he wishes to join the
Montenegrins."

"He will have more than a year's grace," said Brand, gravely. "Something
has happened. You remember the man Kirski? Well, he has killed himself
to release Lind."

"Just Heaven!" Calabressa exclaimed; but the exclamation was one of
astonishment, not in the least of regret. On the contrary, he began to
speak in tones of exultation.

"Ah, let us hear now what the beautiful child will say! For who was it
that reclaimed that savage animal, and taught him the beautifulness of
self-sacrifice, and showed him how the most useless life could be made
serviceable and noble? Who but I? He was my pupil: I first watched the
light of virtue beginning to radiate through his savage nature. That is
what I will ask the beautiful Natalushka when I see her. Perhaps she
will not again turn away from an old friend--"

"You seem to forget, Calabressa, that your teaching has brought this man
to his death," Brand said.

"Why not?" said Calabressa, with a perfectly honest stare. "Why not? Was
it not well done? Was it not a fitting end? Why I, even I, who watched
him long, did not expect to see that: his savagery falling away from him
bit by bit; himself rising to this grand height, that he should give his
life to save another: I tell you it is a beautiful thing; he has
understood what I taught him; he has seen clear."

Calabressa was much excited, and very proud. It seemed to him that he
had saved a soul as he remarked in his ornate French.

"Perhaps it has all happened for the best," Brand said; "perhaps it was
the best that could have befallen that poor devil, too. But you are
mistaken, Calabressa, about his reasons for giving up his life like
that. It was not for the sake of a theory at all, admirable as your
teachings may have been; it was for the sake of Natalie Li