if he did not take care of himself among all these ruffians who
surrounded him? and had there been any such controlling Power in the
world, he thought with bitterness, a great deal in his life would have
been very different. Conversations of this kind always made him feel
thoroughly bad.

"What do you suppose," he suddenly asked, one evening as they were
talking together on their watch, "your sister meant to do with me,
Federigo, if I had not escaped?"

Up to this they had avoided touching upon this tender subject, and
Federigo answered, evasively--

"I'm sure I don't know. She takes wild notions sometimes."

"Yes--but what do you think? I know you had no hand in the matter."

"H'm! I had rather not say," replied Federigo, obviously relieved, but
with a peculiar smile, as if his fancy was ranging not without enjoyment
through the region of possibilities. "She scalded a monkey once, that
had bitten her, slowly to death with boiling-water. But her ingenuity
was endless."

Salvé felt a shudder run through him, and something in his face told the
other that he had better not indulge his fancy any further; and he
hastened, therefore, to add half in joke and half by way of
consolation--

"Poor Antonio Varez will pay for her having been obliged to marry him,
never fear. Yes, she is rich and happy," he concluded with a sigh, as if