THE NINTH MAN
burden, said, "There was a girl here once—some poor and distant relation of Count Bartolommeo's. You knew her."
I nodded. She had been a soft thing—too soft for my taste—with brown eyes like a dog's. And one day she went away and came back no more, and there had been some gossip, and that was all.
"Some months after the girl had gone I sat one night in my room," said he, "and with me Bartolommeo. I heard a whimpering as of a scared animal, and the curtain was held aside, and there stood my lady, and she pushed the girl in ahead of her; the girl was huddled under a cloak.
" 'And what do you here?' he cried. 'What do you want?'
" 'You, my lord,' said my lady, looking at him straight. And the girl bowed her head.
"The black fury of the Contis, which kills what comes in their way, came oyer him.
" 'I told you to begone,' said he, 'and to trouble me no more. Have you come whimpering back to show your shame?'
" 'Your shame and hers, my lord,' said
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