“Yours, G.B.”

“Take this to Lord Evelyn, Waters; and if he is up get an answer.”

“But your breakfast, sir.  God bless me—­”

“Never mind breakfast.  I am going to lie down for an hour or two now:  I have had some business to think over.  Let me have some breakfast about eleven—­when I ring.”

“Very well, sir.”

That was his phrase—­he had had some business to think over.  But it seemed to him, as he went into the adjacent room, that that night he had passed through worse than the bitterness of death.

CHAPTER LV.

CONGRATULATIONS.

The Secretary Granaglia, the business of the Council being over, carried the news to Von Zoesch.  It was almost dark when he made his way up the steep little terraces in the garden of the villa at Posilipo.  He found the tall general seated at the entrance to the grotto-like retreat, smoking a cigar in the dusk.

“You are late, Granaglia,” he said.

“I had some difficulty in coming here,” said the little man with the sallow face and the tired eyes.  “The police are busy, or pretending to be.  The Commendatore tells me that Zaccatelli has been stirring them up.”

“Zaccatelli!” said Von Zoesch, with a laugh.  “It will soon be time now for Zaccatelli to come down from his perch.  Well, now, what is the result?”

Granaglia briefly recounted what had occurred:  the other manifested no surprise.

“So this is the end of the Lind episode,” he said, thoughtfully.  “It is a pity that so able a man should be thrown away.  He has worked well; I know of no one who will fill his place; but that must be seen to at once, Granaglia.  How long have they given him?”

“A month, your Excellency.  He wishes to go back to England to put his affairs in order.  He has a firm nerve.”

“He was a good-looking man when he was young,” said Von Zoesch, apparently to himself.  Then he added:  “This Beratinsky, to whom the Zaccatelli affair has been transferred—­what do you think of him?  There must be no bungling, Granaglia.  What do you think of him—­is he to be trusted?”

“Your Excellency, if I were to give you my own impression, I should say not in the least.  He accepts this service—­why?  Because he is otherwise lost for certain, and here is a chance:  it is perhaps better than nothing.  But he does not go forward with any conviction of duty:  what is he thinking but of his chance of running away?”

“And perhaps running away beforehand, for example?”

“Oh no, your Excellency; at least, that has been provided for.  Caprone and the brother of Caprone will wait upon him until the thing is over; and what is more, he will receive a hint that these two humble attendants of his are keeping an eye on him.”

“Caprone dare not go to Rome.”

“He is ready to go anywhere.  They might as well try to lay hands on a ghost.”