it strike all the houses that the Lord Prince Cardinal was n't
in?"

"I do not think so, Signorino. Ma non fa niente. It was a
terrible storm--terrible, terrible. The lightning was going to
strike this house, when the Lord Prince Cardinal arrived."

"Hum," said Peter. "Then you, as well as I, have reason for
regarding his arrival as providential."




XVIII


"I think something must have happened to my watch," Peter
said, next day.

Indeed, its hands moved with extraordinary, with exasperating
slowness.

"It seems absurd that it should do no good to push them on," he
thought.

He would force himself, between twice ascertaining their
position, to wait for a period that felt like an eternity,
walking about miserably, and smoking flavourless cigarettes;
--then he would stand amazed, incredulous, when, with a smirk
(as it almost struck him) of ironical complacence, they would