She has a horror of chemical smells and explosions--and she has banished me to these lower regions, so that my experiments may neither be smelt nor heard." He held out his hands, on which we had noticed that he wore gloves in the house.

"Accidents will happen sometimes," he said, "no matter how careful a man may be.

I burnt my hands severely in trying a new combination the other day, and they are only recovering now." 'We mention these otherwise unimportant incidents, in order to show that our exploration of the palace was not impeded by any attempt at concealment.

We were even admitted to her ladyship's own room--on a subsequent occasion, when she went out to take the air.

Our instructions recommended us to examine his lordship's residence, because the extreme privacy of his life at Venice, and the remarkable departure of the only two servants in the house, might have some suspicious connection with the nature of his death.