Below stairs nought was stirring. I hastily flung my wet mantle to
Mario, the deaf-mute, who had let me in, and ran up stairs. Hardly had I
reached the second floor when Ann met me, well and of good cheer; and
when I began, in the outer chamber, to beseech her to be no less
steadfast than I was in departing for the East, she nodded consent, and
pointed the way into the inner chamber, where we might be more at our
ease. I was amazed to see her in such good heart, and all the more so
when she told me that my lord Cardinal had come home that morning.

There was above stairs, she hastily told me, a noble Italian Knight, who
had desired to see our pictures; so we went into the guest chamber, which
was all lighted up as when company was bidden. Nay, it was of such
festal aspect as well nigh dazzled me, and I discerned at once that my
portrait, which only a few days ago had been hanged on the wall by the
side of Ann's for my lord Cardinal, was now placed on two chairs and
leaning against the high backs.

All this and more I perceived in a few hasty glances, and when I enquired
where might this stranger from Italy be, I was told that he had gone with
Master Pernhart into the chamber which had been fitted for his Eminence
with the magnificent stuffs from Rome and Florence which he had brought
as a gift for his old mother. The finest of these were certain hangings
of fine tissue and of many colors, which hung over the wide opening
between the great guest chamber and that next to it. And the Italian
must likewise have seen these, inasmuch as that they hung down, whereas
they were wont to be drawn to the sides. Behind them, all was dark; thus
the Master and his wife, with their strange guest, must have withdrawn
into the chamber at the back of the house, where the Cardinal had loved
to work, and wherein there were sundry works of art to be seen, and