"No? Then I will enlighten you. Madame, my wife, thought this devil of a tenor dead, and, as he has been keeping quiet all this time, she never for a moment suspected the truth. I saw an announcement of his marriage in the newspapers, but you may be sure I did not let the Marchesa see it. Everything was going beautifully, and we were a model couple--outwardly--when, as ill-luck would have it, this paragraph appeared in the paper." Beltrami handed me a copy of La Lombardia, and pointed to a paragraph, which I read. It stated that Guiseppe Pallanza, the famous tenor, was going to sing at the Grand Opera House, Madrid, and would be accompanied to Spain by his wife, the granddaughter of Maestro Angello, the celebrated teacher of singing. "You can guess what a rage she was in," said Beltrami, when I had finished reading this fatal information. "Diavolo! she has a temper; but, as I told you, I am quite a match for Madame, and held my own during this furious quarrel. She demanded an explanation, and I gave her one." "What? you told her----" "Everything, mon ami. Your story, my story, Pallanza's story--all about the antidote, the vault, the supper. Eh! Hugo, she now knows as much as you or I. Mon Dieu, you should have seen her when I had finished!" "Why? what did she do?" "She smiled, that was all; but it was the smile that alarmed me." "For your own safety?" "Ma foi, no! I told her she need not try the poison on me, as I had the antidote. In reply, she gave one of those wicked laughs that freeze your blood, and said that Signora Pallanza had not an antidote, and it would be the worse for her." "Then she intends to poison the poor girl?" "I fancied so yesterday, and I was sure of it this morning, when I heard from my servants that the Marchesa Beltrami had gone to Milan. I knew what she was after, so followed by the next train, and came straight to you." "And what do you want me to do, Beltrami?" "Come with me at once to the Casa Angello, to warn Signora Pallanza! I suppose she is still staying with the Maestro Angello?" "Yes, until she goes to Spain with her husband. Let us go at once, Luigi. But, oh! Beltrami, if we are too late!" "Do not be alarmed! I have the antidote in my pocket." CHAPTER XVII. NEMESIS. The Maestro had a very comfortable suite of apartments in Milan overlooking the Via Carlo Alberto, near the Piazza del Duomo, which were chosen by him on account of their situation, as he could sit at the window of his bedroom and amuse himself by gazing at the crowded street. This watching of the populace was his great delight, and when not giving a lesson he was generally stationed at his window, or else employed in reading _Il Seccolo_, which he did in a curious fashion, by holding it close to his best-seeing eye.