track Leslie to every house that he visits,--might and would, still more
naturally, set spies to track myself. Were this man an Englishman, I
should laugh at his machinations; but he is an Italian, and has been a
conspirator. What he could do I know not; but an assassin can penetrate
into a camp, and a traitor can creep through closed walls to one's
hearth. With my mother, Violante must be safe; that you cannot oppose.
And why not come yourself?"

Riccabocca had no reply to these arguments, so far as they affected
Violante; indeed, they awakened the almost superstitious terror with
which he regarded his enemy, and he consented at once that Violante
should accept the invitation proffered. But he refused it for himself
and Jemima.

"To say truth," said he, simply, "I made a secret vow, on re-entering
England, that I would associate with none who knew the rank I had
formerly held in my own land. I felt that all my philosophy was needed
to reconcile and habituate myself to my altered circumstances. In order
to find in my present existence, however humble, those blessings which
make all life noble,--dignity and peace,--it was necessary for poor, weak
human nature wholly to dismiss the past. It would unsettle me sadly,
could I come to your house, renew awhile, in your kindness and respect--
nay, in the very atmosphere of your society--the sense of what I have
been; and then (should the more than doubtful chance of recall from my
exile fail me) to awake, and find myself for the rest of life what I am.
And though, were I alone, I might trust myself perhaps to the danger, yet
my wife: she is happy and contented now; would she be so, if you had once
spoiled her for the simple position of Dr. Riccabocca's wife? Should I
not have to listen to regrets and hopes and fears that would prick sharp
through my thin cloak of philosophy? Even as it is, since in a moment of