while, a brief suppressed tittering.
Signor Bartlezzi, who had entered the room quietly, had to speak twice
before he was conscious of his presence.

"They are in the room behind, Signor Count, and I have informed them of
your presence," he announced.

The Count drew himself up, and stopped suddenly short in his restless
walk.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Lead the way! I follow."

Together they passed into the narrow passage, and the Professor threw
open the door of another room. The Count entered.

The Professor had done what he could in the short time at his disposal.
Pens and ink had been placed upon the deal table, and the chairs had
been ranged along it instead of around the fire. The tobacco jar and
pipes were there, however, and some suspicious-looking jugs; and the
hasty current of fresh air, caused by the withdrawal of a sheet of brown
paper from the upper window frame, was altogether powerless to cope with
the close beer-house smell which hung about the place.

The company consisted of four men. The chair at the head of the table
had been left vacant for the Professor. On the right sat Andrew
Martello, an anglicized Italian, and a vendor of ice cream; on the left
was Pietro Muratti, the proprietor of an itinerant musical instrument.
These were the only two, besides the Professor, who had any pretense to
Italian blood. The other two were a French barber and a Jew pawnbroker.

The light was purposely dim, and the Count's eyes were bad. Besides, his
long confinement, and the great though suppressed excitement under which
he was laboring, had to a certain extent confused his judgment. He saw a
mean room, and four men only, when he had dreamed of a chamber in some
great house and an important assemblage; but, disappointing though this
was, it did not seem fatal to his hopes. Let but these four men be
faithful to their oaths, and he, who had served their cause so well,
could demand as a right the boon he craved. He strove earnestly to read
their faces, but the light was bad and his eyes were dim. He must wait.
Their voices would show him what manner of men they were. After all, why
should he doubt for a moment? Men who had remained faithful to a dying
and deserted cause, must needs be men of strength and honorable men. The
very fewness of their numbers proved it, else why should they too not
have fallen away. He would banish all doubt. He would speak when his
time came with all confidence.

The Professor introd