"I have a very urgent appointment, but in an hour I shall perhaps have occasion to ask a service of you.

Where shall I find you ?" "At home," said Peppino, "lunching." "Very well," replied Boleslas, and, raising himself, he whispered in the cabman's ear, in a voice too low for his friend to hear what he said: "Ten francs for you if in five minutes you drive me to the corner of the Rue Napoleon III and the Place de la Victor-Emmanuel." The man gathered up his reins, and, by some sleight-of-hand, the jaded horse which drew the botte was suddenly transformed into a fine Roman steed, the botte itself into a light carriage as swift as the Tuscan carrozzelle, and the whole disappeared in a cross street, while Peppino said to himself: "There is a fine fellow who would do so much better to remain with his friend Ardea than to go whither he is going.

This affair will end in a duel.

If I had not to liquidate that folly," and he pointed out with the end of his cane a placard relative to the sale of his own palace, "I would amuse myself by taking Caterina from both of them.

But those little amusements must wait until after my marriage." As we have seen, the cunning Prince had not been mistaken as to the course taken by the cab Gorka had hailed.