"Little are they? They are big enough to ruin my work! _Dio santo_, they shall smart for it!" Again he tugged at her restraining hands. "Be careful girl--when I am through with them you shall have your turn--who do you think you are to interfere with your master?" He wrenched his arm free with a force that sent her reeling and once more the foil descended. She flew at him again, her face blanched, her eyes blazing, a new note in her voice. "Have a care yourself!" she shrieked. "Murderer! Assassin! Help! Help! Murder!" "Stop that, you fool!" he snarled, but she cried the louder, and he dropped the children to choke her cries. The white scared faces of Nando and Assunta peering in at the door brought him to his senses and he flung the girl off. "You pack of fools!" he growled, "take that hysterical idiot away and leave this room! How dare you come here without my orders?" But Assunta was already by Carolina's side, bending over the children, whose loud sobbing filled the room. "Take your silly face from that door, Nando! _Dio mi strabenedica_ if I don't throw the whole crew of you into the street! Am I to have no peace in my own home?" A sound of steps was heard in the passage; Nando felt a hand on his shoulder thrusting him aside, and Enrico Ferrati entered, glancing about him in astonishment at the scene before him. "My God, Egidio! What does this mean? What has happened to the children?" Carolina raised her tear-stained face. "Ah, Signor Dottore! The good God himself has sent you! Look at these poor innocents, murdered by their father!" He was kneeling beside them in an instant, examining the welts and cuts on their little necks and hands, feeling them cautiously over--fortunately no bones were broken. "Take them to their room, my good girl, undress them and put them to bed. I shall come presently--you can put some compresses on these bruises, and wash the cuts with the solution in the big green bottle on the Signora's dressing table. Go, Mimmo caro, go, Beppino mio, Zio Rico is here and will come to you. There now, don't cry! There is nothing to be afraid of, it is all over!" Carolina took Mimmo in her arms and staggering a little under his weight, led the way, Assunta following with Beppino. "Go also, my friend," said the Doctor to Nando, "I shall ring if you are wanted." Nando slunk off in his turn, casting many curious backward glances. Ferrati waited till the last footstep had died away then he raised his eyes from the foil he had picked up and was fingering. "And now will you tell me what all this means, Egidio?" he asked quietly. Valentini shrugged his shoulders sulkily. "I was merely giving the children a little richly deserved punishment."