, compassionate Christian, that turns pale at the sight of
a strap pulled too tight! I might have known when you came in, like an
angel of mercy--so shocked at the colonel's 'barbarity'--that the real
thing was going to begin! Why do you look at me that way? Consent, man,
of course, and go home to your dinner; the thing's not worth all this
fuss. Tell your colonel he can have me shot, or hanged, or whatever
comes handiest--roasted alive, if it's any amusement to him--and be done
with it!"

The Gadfly was hardly recognizable; he was beside himself with rage
and desperation, panting and quivering, his eyes glittering with green
reflections like the eyes of an angry cat.

Montanelli had risen, and was looking down at him silently. He did not
understand the drift of the frenzied reproaches, but he understood out
of what extremity they were uttered; and, understanding that, forgave
all past insults.

"Hush!" he said. "I did not want to hurt you so. Indeed, I never meant
to shift my burden on to you, who have too much already. I have never
consciously done that to any living creature----"

"It's a lie!" the Gadfly cried out with blazing eyes. "And the
bishopric?"

"The--bishopric?"

"Ah! you've forgotten that? It's so easy to forget! 'If you wish it,
Arthur, I will say I cannot go. I was to decide your life for you--I, at
nineteen! If it weren't so hideous, it would be funny."

"Stop!" Montanelli put up both hands to his head with a desperate cry.
He let them fall again, and walked slowly away to the window. There
he sat down on the sill, resting one arm on the bars, and pressing his
forehead against it. The Gadfly lay and watched him, trembling.

Presently Montanelli rose and came back, with lips as pale as ashes.

"I am very sorry," he said, struggling piteously to keep up his usual
quiet manner, "but I must go home. I--am not quite well."

He was shivering as if with ague. All the Gadfly's fury broke down.

"Padre, can't you see----"

Montanelli shrank away, and stood still.

"Only not that!" he whispered at last. "My God, anything but that! If I
am going mad----"

The Gadfly raised himself on one arm, and took the shaking hands in his.

"Padre, will you never understand that I am not really drowned?"

The hands grew suddenly cold and stiff. For a moment everything was dead
with silence, and then Montanelli knelt down and hid his face on the
Gadfly's breast.

*****

When he raised his head the su