schoolboy. The position was humiliating, but it did not seem possible to
escape it. The doctor took everything for granted; and besides, he so
groaned and grunted at his labours, his goaded flesh protested so
loudly, the pitfalls were so many, and the pace so severe, that nothing
in the world seemed of moment beyond preserving foothold. Along the
winding way--between the half-discerned arcades, palace gateways, black
entries, church portals--down the very middle of the street flew master
and pupil without word spoken. They reached the Pra, skirted its right-
hand boundary for some hundreds of yards, and came to the door of a
tall, narrow, white house. Upon this door the doctor kicked furiously
until it was opened; then, with a malediction upon the oaf who snored
behind it, up he blundered, three stairs at a time, Strelley after him
whether or no; and stayed not in his rush towards the stars until he had
reached the fourth-floor landing, where again he kicked at a door; and
then, releasing his victim's hand, took off hat and wig together and
mopped his dripping pate, as he murmured, "Chaste Madonna, what a
ramble! What a stroll for the evening, powerful Mother of us all!" Such
a stroll had never yet been taken by Mr. Francis Strelley of Upcote in
his one-and-twenty years' experience of legs; nor did he ever forget
this manner of being haled into Italy, nor lose his feeling of extremely
helpless youth in the presence of the doctor, his tutor and guardian.
But to suppose the business done by calculation of that remarkable man
is to misapprehend him altogether. Dr. Lanfranchi's head worked, as his
body did, by flashes. He calculated nothing, but hit at everything; hit
or miss, it might be--but "Let's to it and have done" was his battle-
cry.

The lamp over the door of his apartment revealed him for the disorderly
genius he was--a huge, blotch-faced, tumble-bellied man, bullet-headed,
bull-necked, and with flashing eyes. Inordinate alike in appetite, mind