"Speedily, then, most worshipful professor, speedily," said
Giovanni, with feverish impatience. "Does not your worship see
that I am in haste?"

Now, while he was speaking there came a man in black along the
street, stooping and moving feebly like a person in inferior
health. His face was all overspread with a most sickly and sallow
hue, but yet so pervaded with an expression of piercing and
active intellect that an observer might easily have overlooked
the merely physical attributes and have seen only this wonderful
energy. As he passed, this person exchanged a cold and distant
salutation with Baglioni, but fixed his eyes upon Giovanni with
an intentness that seemed to bring out whatever was within him
worthy of notice. Nevertheless, there was a peculiar quietness in
the look, as if taking merely a speculative, not a human
interest, in the young man.

"It is Dr. Rappaccini!" whispered the professor when the stranger
had passed. "Has he ever seen your face before?"

"Not that I know," answered Giovanni, starting at the name.

"He HAS seen you! he must have seen you!" said Baglioni, hastily.
"For some purpose or other, this man of science is making a study
of you. I know that look of his! It is the same that coldly
illuminates his face as he bends over a bird, a mouse, or a
butterfly, which, in pursuance of some experiment, he has killed
by the perfume of a flower; a look as deep as Nature itself, but
without Nature's warmth of love. Signor Giovanni, I will stake my