Twenty years is a long time, and there
must be many changes. Why had he not stayed in Rome a little longer, and
learned more. He could easily have obtained the knowledge which he
desired there. It would have been wiser, surely it would have been
wiser.

The door opened in the midst of his meditations, and he looked eagerly
up. Again his heart fell. It was not such a man as this that he had
expected to see. Ah! what a day of disappointments it was!

The figure which, after a moment's pause in the doorway, now advanced
somewhat hesitatingly toward him, was that of a man a little past middle
age. He was of medium height, but stout even to corpulency, and his
cheeks were fat and puffy. His hair was gray, and his thick, stubbly
mustaches, which had evidently once been black, were also changing
color. His dark, shiny coat was ridiculously short for him, and his
trousers terminated above his ankles. He wore no necktie, and his collar
was ragged and soiled. In short, his whole appearance was not only
untidy but dirty. His gait, too, was slouching and undignified.

"You wished to speak to me," he said in a thick tone and with a foreign
accent. "My name is Bartlezzi--Signor Alfonso Bartlezzi."

"Yes, I wished to speak with you."

Signor Bartlezzi began to feel uncomfortable under his visitor's fixed
gaze. Why should he look at him so intently? He had never set eyes upon
him before--and what an odd, shrunken little figure it was. He coughed
and shifted his position.

"Ah! yes. I am ready, as you see. Is it anything to do with my
profession?"

"I do not know what your profession is."

Signor Bartlezzi made an effort to draw himself up, and assumed a
military air.

"I am a master of fencing," he announced, "also a professor of
Italian--Professor Alfonso Bartlezzi, at your service. I am fairly
well-known in this neighborhood. If you have pupils to recommend, sir,
or if you are thinking of taking lessons yourself, I should be most
happy. My services are sometimes made use of as interpreter, both in the
police court and privately. I should be happy to serve you in that
capacity, sir."

Signor Bartlezzi, having declared himself, folded his arms and waited.
He felt certain that his visitor must now divulge his name and mission.
That, however, he seemed in no hurry to do.

"You are an Italian?" he asked presently.

"Certainly, sir."

"May I ask, have you still correspondents or friends in that country?"

The Professor w