as the way he fooled that poor little Grassini
woman?"

"About the ballet-girl, you mean?"

"Yes, he persuaded her the girl was going to be the lion of the season.
Signora Grassini would do anything for a celebrity."

"I thought it an unfair and unkind thing to do; it put the Grassinis
into a false position; and it was nothing less than cruel to the girl
herself. I am sure she felt ill at ease."

"You had a talk with him, didn't you? What did you think of him?"

"Oh, Cesare, I didn't think anything except how glad I was to see
the last of him. I never met anyone so fearfully tiring. He gave me a
headache in ten minutes. He is like an incarnate demon of unrest."

"I thought you wouldn't like him; and, to tell the truth, no more do I.
The man's as slippery as an eel; I don't trust him."

CHAPTER III.

THE Gadfly took lodgings outside the Roman gate, near to which Zita was
boarding. He was evidently somewhat of a sybarite; and, though nothing
in the rooms showed any serious extravagance, there was a tendency to
luxuriousness in trifles and to a certain fastidious daintiness in the
arrangement of everything which surprised Galli and Riccardo. They
had expected to find a man who had lived among the wildernesses of the
Amazon more simple in his tastes, and wondered at his spotless ties and
rows of boots, and at the masses of flowers which always stood upon
his writing table. On the whole they got on very well with him. He was
hospitable and friendly to everyone, especially to the local members
of the Mazzinian party. To this rule Gemma, apparently, formed an
exception; he seemed to have taken a dislike to her from the time of
their first meeting, and in every way avoided her company. On two or
three occasions he was actually rude to her, thus bringing upon himself
Martini's most cordial detestation. There had been no love lost between
the two men from the beginning; their temperaments appeared to be too
incompatible for them to feel anything but repugnance for each other. On
Martini's part this was fast developing into hostility.

"I don't care about his not liking me," he said one day to Gemma with
an aggrieved air. "I don't like him, for that matter; so there's no harm
done. But I can't stand the way he behaves to you. If it weren't for the
scandal it would make in the party first to beg a man to come and then
to quarrel with him, I should call him to account for it."

"Let him alone, Cesare; it isn't of any