se lunatic than before. Jaqui attempted to reason with him; but
Florino would listen to nothing he had to say, and went on being a
fool, and a poet, and a lover, at the same time; and Jaqui began to be
afraid that some day he would get into the room by foul means, break
open the box, seize upon the sealed parchment which lay under the lid,
and try to revive the lady himself.

"It is quite possible this might have happened had not something very
unexpected occurred. Dr. Paltravi came back to his old home. Jaqui
recognized him immediately from the description which Torquino had given
of him. He was now nearly seventy years old, but he was in good health
and vigor; his tall form was still upright, and the dark eyes, which the
old doctor had particularly described, were as bright and as piercing as
ever they had been.

"He told Jaqui he had hoped to postpone the revival of his wife until
the expiration of the fifty years, but that of late his resolution had
been weakening. It had become very hard for him to think he must wait
ten years more before he came back to his home and his wife. Science was
a great thing, but the love of a man for a woman such as he loved was
still greater; and when he heard of the death of Dr. Torquino he had
instantly made up his mind he would not leave his wife in the custody of
any one but his old friend and partner. So here he was, fully resolved
to lose no time in reviving his wife and in spending his life here with
her in their old home so long as they might survive.

"Jaqui was now a happy man. Here was the owner of the lady, ready to
take her off his hands and relieve him of all the perplexing
responsibility and misery which her possession had caused him. As he
looked at the stalwart figure of the returned husband it made him laugh
to think of the fool-poet.

"Dr. Paltravi and Jaqui were both practical men, and that evening they
laid out the whole plan for the revivification of the lady in the box.
Jaqui was so glad to be rid of her that he willingly undertook to do
anything to assist Paltravi in starting out on his new career of
domestic happiness.

"It was agreed that it was most important that when she woke again to
life Donna Paltravi should not be too much surprised, and her husband
did everything he could to prevent anything of the kind. He had her old
bedroom swept and garnished and made to look as much as possible as it
had been when she last saw it. Then he went out into the to