Clementina

"I must have a postillion," she continued.

"Presently, madam," said the landlord, smiling with all a Tuscan

peasant's desire to please. "In a minute. In less than a minute."

He looked complacently about him as though at any moment now a crop of

postillions might be expected to flower by the roadside. The lady turned

from him with a stamp of the foot and saw that Wogan was curiously

regarding her carriage. A boy stood at the horses' heads, but his dress

and sleepy face showed that he had not been half an hour out of bed, and

there was no one else. Wogan was wondering how in the world she had

travelled as far as this inn. The lady explained.

"The postillion who drove me from Florence was drunk--oh, but drunk! He

rolled off his horse just here, opposite the door. See, I beat him," and

she raised the beribboned handle of a toy-like cane. "But it was no use.

I broke my cane over his back, but he would not get up. He crawled into

the passage where he lies."

Wogan had some ado not to smile. Neither the cane nor the hand which

wielded it would be likely to interfere even with a sober man's

slumbers.

"And I must reach Bologna to-day," she cried in an extreme agitation.

"It is of the last importance."

"Fortune is kind to us both, madam," said Wogan, with a bow. "My horse

is lamed, as you see. I will be your charioteer, for I too am in a

desperate hurry to reach Bologna."

Immediately the lady drew back.

"Oh!" she said with a start, looking at Wogan.

Wogan looked at her.

"Ah!" said he, thoughtfully.

They eyed each other for a moment, each silently speculating what the

other was doing alone at this hour and in such a haste to reach Bologna.

"You are English?" she said with a great deal of unconcern, and she

asked in English. That she was English, Wogan already knew from her

accent. His Italian, however, was more than passable, and he was a wary

man by nature as well as by some ten years' training in a service where

wariness was the first need, though it was seldom acquired. He could

have answered "No" quite truthfully, being Irish. He preferred to answer

her in Italian as though he had not understood.

"I beg your pardon. Yes, I will drive you to Bologna if the landlord

will swear to look after my horse." And he was very precise in his

directions.