like that of some girl's adventure in men's clothes. He was in terror
lest Mrs. Vervain should be going to say it was like that; she was
going to say something; he made haste to forestall her, and turn the
talk on other things.

The next day the priest came in his usual dress, and he did not again
try to escape from it.




VI.


One afternoon, as Don Ippolito was posing to Perris for his picture of
A Venetian Priest, the painter asked, to make talk, "Have you hit upon
that new explosive yet, which is to utilize your breech-loading cannon?
Or are you engaged upon something altogether new?"

"No," answered the other uneasily, "I have not touched the cannon since
that day you saw it at my house; and as for other things, I have not
been able to put my mind to them. I have made a few trifles which I
have ventured to offer the ladies."

Ferris had noticed the ingenious reading-desk which Don Ippolito had
presented to Florida, and the footstool, contrived with springs and
hinges so that it would fold up into the compass of an ordinary
portfolio, which Mrs. Vervain carried about with her.

An odd look, which the painter caught at and missed, came into the