"You were?" cried Armytage, immediately interested. He felt that, perhaps, from this careless, easygoing doctor, he might obtain some clue which would lead him to the truth regarding Gemma's past. Malvano recalled Lady Marshfield's words, and with his keen dark eyes looked gravely into the face of the tall, broad-shouldered young Englishman. "Yes," he said. "There was a mother and two daughters, if I remember aright, and they lived in a small flat in the Via Ricasoli, a few doors from the Gerini Palace. I was summoned there in the night under somewhat mysterious circumstances, for I found, on arrival, that one of the daughters had a deep-incised wound in the neck, evidently inflicted with a knife. I made inquiry how it occurred, but received no satisfactory reply. One thing was evident, namely that the wound could not have been self-inflicted. There had been an attempt to murder the girl." "To murder her!" Armytage cried. "No doubt," the Doctor answered. "The wound had narrowly proved fatal, therefore the girl was in too collapsed a condition to speak herself. I dressed the wound, and advising them to call their own doctor, went away." "Didn't you see the girl again?" asked Armytage. "No. There was something exceedingly suspicious about the whole affair, and I had no desire to imperil my professional reputation by being party at hushing up an attempted murder. Besides, from what I heard later, I believe they were decidedly a family to avoid." "To avoid! What do you mean?" the young man cried, dismayed. Malvano saw that the words were producing the effect he desired, namely, to increase suspicion and mistrust in his companion's heart, and therefore resolved to go even further. "The family of whom I speak held a very unenviable reputation in Florence. Some mystery was connected with the father, who was said to be undergoing a long term of imprisonment. They were altogether beyond the pale of society. But, of course," he added carelessly, "they cannot be the same family as those of whom you speak. Where did you say your friends live?" "They no longer live in Florence," he answered hoarsely, his brow darkened, and his eyes downcast in deep thought. All that he learnt regarding Gemma seemed to be to her detriment. None had ever spoken generously of her. It was, alas! true, as she had told him, she had many enemies who sought her disgrace and ruin. Then, after a pause, he asked, "Do you know the names of the girls?" "Only that of the one I attended," Malvano answered, his searching eyes on the face of young Armytage. "Her name was Gemma." "Gemma!" he gasped. His trembling lips moved, but the words he uttered were lost in the two rapid barrels which the Doctor discharged at a couple of pheasants at that instant passing over their heads. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. THE SHADOW.