Odo, inferring an allusion to the Countess Clarice, smiled and coloured
slightly. "I know of none," he said.

Trescorre bowed. "I am glad to hear it," he said, "for I know that a man
of your age and appearance may have other inclinations than his own to
consider. Indeed, I have had reports of a connection that I should not
take the liberty of mentioning, were it not that your interest demands
it." He waited a moment, but Odo remained silent. "I am sure," he went
on, "you will do me the justice of believing that I mean no reflection
on the lady, when I warn you against being seen too often in the quarter
behind the Corpus Domini. Such attachments, though engaging at the
outset to a fastidious taste, are often more troublesome than a young
man of your age can foresee; and in this case the situation is
complicated by the fact that the girl's father is in ill odour with the
authorities, so that, should the motive of your visits be mistaken, you
might find yourself inconveniently involved in the proceedings of the
Holy Office."

Odo, who had turned pale, controlled himself sufficiently to listen in
silence, and with as much pretence of indifference as he could assume.
It was the peculiar misery of his situation that he could not defend
Fulvia without betraying her father, and that of the two alternatives
prudence bade him reject the one that chivalry would have chosen. It
flashed across him, however, that he might in some degree repair the
harm he had done by finding out what measures were to be taken against
Vivaldi; and to this end he carelessly asked:--"Is it possible that the
Professor has done anything to give offence in such quarters?"

His assumption of carelessness was perhaps overdone; for Trescorre's
face grew as blank as a shuttered house-front.