is words had unwittingly
touched?

"He is a good man," Basterga said. "And of the first in Geneva. His
brother too, who is Procureur-General. Their father died for the State,
and the sons, the Syndic in particular, served with high honour in the
war. Savoy has no stouter foe than Philibert Blondel, nor Geneva a more
devoted son." And he drank as if he drank a toast to them.

Claude nodded.

"A man of great parts too. Probably you will wait on him?"

"Next week. I was near waiting on him after another fashion," Claude
continued rather grimly. "Between him and your friend there," with a
glance at Grio, who had relapsed into a moody glaring silence, "I was
like to get more gyves than justice."

The big man laughed. "Our friend here has served the State," he
remarked, "and does what another may not. Come, Messer Grio," he
continued, clapping him on the shoulder, as he rose from his seat. "We
have sat long enough. If the young ones will not stir, it becomes the
old ones to set an example. Will you to my room and view the
precipitation of which I told you?"

Grio gave a snarling assent, and got to his feet; and the party broke up
with no more words. Claude took his cap and prepared to withdraw, well
content with himself and the line he had taken. But he did not leave the
house until his ears assured him that the two who had ascended the
stairs together had actually repaired to Basterga's room on the first
floor, and there shut themselves up.

CHAPTER IV.

CAESAR BASTERGA.

Had it been Mercier's eye in place of his ear which attended the two men
to the upper room, he would have remarked--perhaps with surprise, since
he had gained some knowledge of Grio's temper--that in proportion as
they mounted the staircase, the toper's crest drooped, and his arrogance
ebbed away; until at the door of Basterga's chamber, it was but a
sneaking and awkward man who crossed the threshold.

Nor was the reason far to seek. Whatever the standpoint of the two men
in public, their relations to one another in private were delivered up,
stamped and sealed in that moment of entrance. While Basterga, leaving
the other to close the door, strode across the room to the window and
stood gazing out, his very back stern and contemptuous, Grio fidgeted
and frowned, waiting with ill-concealed penitence, until the other chose
to address him. At length Basterga turned, and his gleaming eyes, his
moon-face pale with anger, withered his compani