subjects of conversation for the first hour or two. The stage was
very long, and it was eleven o'clock before they reached their first
relay of horses, by which time the young traveller had decided that
she had great reason to be satisfied with her companions. The Italian
was polite and entertaining; he had travelled a great deal, and was
full of anecdote; and being naturally lively and garrulous, the
design he entertained of taking away the life of his charge did not
prevent his making himself agreeable to her in the meantime. With his
well-seared conscience, he neither felt nervous nor saturnine at the
prospect of what was before him--why should he indeed?--for the only
part of the prospect he fixed his eye upon was the gain; the little
operation by means of which it was to be acquired, he did not think
very seriously of; besides, he did not intend to perform it himself.

When they stopped to change horses, a lad of about seventeen years of
age, named Karl, nephew of Mazzuolo's wife, came to the carriage
door: he seemed to have been waiting for them. Mazzuolo spoke to
him aside for some minutes, and when they started again, the youth
mounted in front of the carriage. The Italian said he was a lad they
had engaged to look after the luggage, and be useful on the journey.
He was, in fact, one who was hired to do any piece of work, good or
bad. He possessed no moral strength, could be easily led by the will
of his employers; in short, was a very useful ally. He had a broad,
fair, stolid German face; and from the glimpse she had of him,
Adelaide thought she had seldom seen a more unprepossessing-looking
person. His home had been a rude and unhappy one; his manners were
coarse and unpolished, and his dress shabby.

The first day's journey passed agreeably enough. When they arrived at
their night's station, Mazzuolo having handed out the ladies, bade