“The articles of the Society, your Excellency—­”

“That particular article, my Calabressa, was framed with a view to encourage self-sacrifice and generosity, no doubt, but not with a view, surely, to any such extreme madness as this.  No.  The fact is, I had no time to explain the circumstances of the case to the young lady, or I could easily have shown her how you were no more involved than herself in procuring the decree against her father.  To-day I cannot; to-morrow I cannot; the day after to-morrow, I solemnly assure you, I will see her, and reason with her, and convince her that you have acted throughout as her best friend only could have done.  You are too sensitive, my Calabressa:  ah, is it not the old romance recalled that is making you so?  But this I promise you, that she shall beg your pardon for having turned away from you.”

“Then,” said Calabressa, with a little touch of indignant pride, “then your Excellency imagines that it is my vanity that has been wounded?”

“No; it is your heart.  And she will be sorry for having pained a true friend:  is not that as it should be?  Why, your proposal, if she agreed to it, what would be the result?  You would stab her with remorse.  For this momentary slight you would say, ’See, I have killed myself.  Learn now that Calabressa loved you.’  But that would be very like revenge, my Calabressa; and you ought not to think of taking revenge on the daughter of Natalie Berezolyi.”

“Your Excellency—­”

Calabressa was about to protest:  but he was stopped.

“Leave it to me, my friend.  The day after to-morrow we shall have more leisure.  Meanwhile, no more thoughts of quixotism. Addio!”

CHAPTER LVIII.

A SACRIFICE.

It would be difficult to say whether Calabressa was altogether sincere in claiming to become the substitute for Ferdinand Lind, or whether he was not practising a little self-deception, and pacifying his wounded pride and affection by this outburst of generosity, while secretly conscious that his offer would not be accepted.  However, what Calabressa had declared himself ready to do, in a fit of wild sentimentalism, another had already done, in terrible earnest.  A useless life had suddenly become ennobled by a tragic and self-sacrificing death.

Two days after Lord Evelyn left for Naples, Brand and Gathorne Edwards were as usual in the chambers in Lisle Street, and, the business of the morning being mostly over, they were chatting together.  There was a brighter look on George Brand’s face than there had been there for many a day.

“What an indefatigable fellow that Molyneux is!” Edwards was saying.

“It is a good thing some one can do something,” Brand answered.  “As for me, I can’t settle down to anything.  I feel as if I had been living on laughing-gas these last two days.  I feel as if I had come alive again into another world, and was a little bit bewildered just as yet.  However, I suppose we shall get shaken into our new positions by-and-by; and the sooner they let us know their final arrangements the better.”