She tossed her head, and shrugged. "I will be careful not to say them
again, at least," she said. "They evidently distressed you. Come, Nonna--
we will leave these gentlemen." The doctor never moved--I followed her
with my eyes. One more look from hers would have drawn us both to our
destruction. I thank God at this hour that she never showed it me. She
went out and shut the door behind her. Neither of us moved until we
heard the street door bang. We had been waiting for that.

"Now, Dr. Lanfranchi," said I, with a glance at my sword, "I am ready
for you how and when you please."

With a howl like that of a miserable maniac he leapt upon me, tripped
and threw me flat upon the flags. I remember the stunning shock of my
fall, but remember no more. I learned afterwards that he had pitched me
out on to the stairs, and that I fell far.




CHAPTER VI

I COMMENCE PILGRIM


I arose from bed, some two or three days after the terrible occurrence
related--and how I had got into it, except for the charity of the
doorkeeper, there's no telling. I arose, I say, to a new heaven and a
new earth: a heaven impossibly remote, an earth of sickly horror, an
earth of serpents and worms, upon which I crawled and groped, the
loathliest of their spawn. I surveyed myself in the glass, faced myself