deemed expiable before the other. By an extraordinary arrangement (the
Italians have certainly no sense of fair play) the other man was allowed
to be Camerino's second. The duel was fought with swords, and the Count
received a wound of which, though at first it was not expected to be
fatal, he died on the following day. The matter was hushed up as much as
possible for the sake of the Countess's good name, and so successfully
that it was presently observed that, among the public, the other
gentleman had the credit of having put his blade through M. de Salvi.
This gentleman took a fancy not to contradict the impression, and it was
allowed to subsist. So long as he consented, it was of course in
Camerino's interest not to contradict it, as it left him much more free
to keep up his intimacy with the Countess."

Stanmer had listened to all this with extreme attention. "Why didn't
_she_ contradict it?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I am bound to believe it was for the same
reason. I was horrified, at any rate, by the whole story. I was
extremely shocked at the Countess's want of dignity in continuing to see
the man by whose hand her husband had fallen."

"The husband had been a great brute, and it was not known," said Stanmer.

"Its not being known made no difference. And as for Salvi having been a
brute, that is but a way of saying that his wife, and the man whom his
wife subsequently married, didn't like him."

Stanmer hooked extremely meditative; his eyes were fixed on mine. "Yes,
that marriage is hard to get over. It was not becoming."