"Simply this," answered the Consul gravely. "Yesterday I received a call from the Questore, and he told me in confidence that you, a British subject, were the close associate of a lady whose past, if revealed, would be a startling and unpleasant revelation to you, her friend. The authorities had, he further said, resolved to order her to leave Leghorn, or remain on penalty of arrest; and in order that you, an English gentleman, might have time to end your acquaintance, he suggested that it might be as well for me to warn you of what the police intended doing. It is to do this that I have asked you here to-day." Armytage sat pale, silent, open-mouthed. "Then the police intend to hound the Signorina Fanetti from Leghorn?" he observed blankly. "The Italian police possess power to expel summarily from a town any person of whom they have suspicion," the Consul replied calmly. "But what do they suspect?" he cried, bewildered. "You speak as if she were some common criminal or adventuress." "I have, unfortunately, no further knowledge of the discovery they have made regarding her. It must, however, be some serious allegation, or they would not go the length of expelling her from the city." "But why should she be expelled?" he protested angrily. "She has committed no offence. Surely there is some protection for a defenceless woman!" Hutchinson raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders, an expressive gesture one soon acquires after residence in Italy. "The Questore has supreme power in such a matter," he said. "He is a very just and honourable official, and I'm sure he would never have taken these steps to avoid you disgrace if there were not some very strong reasons." Charles Armytage, leaning upon the edge of the Consul's table, held down his head in deep contemplation. "Then to-morrow they will order her to quit this place?" he observed thoughtfully. "It's unjust and brutal! Such treatment of a peaceful woman is scandalous!" "But remember you've admitted that you have no knowledge of her past," Hutchinson said. "Is it not possible that the police have discovered some fact she has concealed from you?" "It's an infernal piece of tyranny!" Armytage cried fiercely. "I suppose the police have fabricated some extraordinary allegations against her, and want money to hush it up. They want to levy blackmail." "No, no," Jack Hutchinson said, his manner at once relaxing as he rose and crossed to the window, his hands behind his back. "The position is a simple one," he continued, looking him straight in the face. "The police have evidently discovered that this lady is either not what she represents herself to be, or that some extraordinary mystery is attached to her; therefore cut her acquaintance, my dear sir. Take my advice. It will save you heaps of bother." "I can't," the other answered hoarsely. "I'll never forsake her!" "Not if she's hounded from town to town by the police, like this?"