slept, and awoke, and ate and slept again. Twice during the afternoon
people were brought to see him. They were servants from the villa on the
Janiculum, but he looked at them dully and said that he could not
remember them.

"We do not think it is he," they said, when questioned. "Why does he
not know us, if it is he? We are old servants in the house. We carried
the young gentleman in our arms when he was small. But this youth does
not know us, nor our names. It is not he."

They were dismissed, and afterwards they met and talked up at the villa.

"The master has been sent for by telegraph," they said one to another.
"We shall do what he says. If he tells us that it is the young gentleman
we will also say that it is; but if he says it is not he, we will also
deny it. This is the only way."

Having decided upon this diplomatic course as the one most likely to
prove advantageous to them, they went back to their several occupations
and amusements. But at the very first they said what they really
thought; none of them really believed the sick youth at the hospital to
be Marcello. An illness of nearly seven weeks and a long course of
privation can make a terrible difference in the looks of a very young
person, and when the memory is gone, too, the chances of his being
recognised are slight.

But the Chief of Police was not disturbed in his belief, and after he
had smoked several cigarettes very thoughtfully in his private office,
he wrote a telegram to Corbario, advising him to come back to Rome at
once. He was surprised to receive an answer from Folco late that night,