at responsibility which
he did not desire at all, and of which he would have rid himself if
Dr. Torquino had not made him swear that he would guard it sacredly
for the ten years which still remained of the intended period of
inanimation.

"He had seen the lady in the box, for the old doctor had taken him into
her room, and they had removed the top of the box and had looked at
her through the great plate of glass which covered her. She was very
beautiful and richly dressed, and seemed as if she were merely asleep.
But, in spite of her beauty and the interest which attached to her, he
wished very much somebody else had her to take care of. Such thoughts,
however, were of no use; she went with the business and the property,
and he had nothing to say about it.

"Jaqui did not have a very good time after the old doctor's death,"
continued John Gayther. "It was not even as good as he had expected it
to be. For nearly fifteen years he had been living in that house with
Dr. Torquino, and in all that time the lady in the box had never
troubled him; but now she did trouble him. Various legal persons came
to attend to the transfer of the property, and, although they found
everything all straight and right so far as the old doctor's possessions
were concerned, they were not so well satisfied in regard to the
contents of the second floor, some of them thinking the government
should have something to say in regard to the property of a man who had
been away for forty years; but as Paltravi had made Torquino his heir
when he left Florence, and Jaqui had the papers to show, this matter was
settled. But, for all that, Jaqui was troubled, and it was about the box
of the lady. It was such a peculiar-looking box that several questions
were asked as to its contents; and when Jaqui boldly asserted that it
contained anatomical preparations, he was asked why it happened to be in
that handsome little room. But by the help of money and his generally
good reputation Jaqui got rid of the legal people.

"But after this he had to face the neighbors. These heard of the box,
and it revived memories, in the minds of some of the elders, of strange
stories about Dr. Paltravi. His wife had died several times, according
to some of them, and she had at last been carried to her native town in
Lombardy for burial. But nobody knew the name of that town, and there
were one or two persons who said she never had been buried, but that her
husband had preserved h