The interview which had taken place between Mrs. Belswin and her Italian lover had been productive of a curious change in the demeanour of the latter. From being master he became slave, from commanding he changed to obeying; and taking advantage of this astonishing transformation, Mrs. Belswin ordered her quondam master about like a dog. She saw that by a single flash of her fierce eyes at a critical moment she had inculcated the superstitious Italian with the idea that she was possessed of the evil eye, and had by so doing taken all the manhood out of him. This son of the south, who was decidedly brave in the presence of physical danger, was so completely the slave of superstition that he firmly believed Mrs. Belswin's eyes exercised a malignant influence upon him, against which he was powerless to struggle. Notwithstanding this terrible feeling, he was too much in love with her to think of removing himself from the dread fascination of her presence, and therefore, he accepted his new position with superstitious resignation. Once or twice, indeed, he attempted to exert his former authority; but the ominous gleam in Mrs. Belswin's eyes, and the significant sneer on her lips, soon reduced him to obedience, and he cowered at the feet of his sometime slave in abject terror. It was not physical fear, it was not a want of manliness: it was simply the effect of a supernatural terror acting upon a nature singularly prone, both by birth and training, to yield to such weird superstitions. Having thus reduced Ferrari to such a state of bondage, Mrs. Belswin thought that there would be no difficulty in making him put her husband out of the way in some stealthy manner. Here, however, she was entirely wrong, as Ferrari, being afraid of the English law, absolutely refused to lend himself to the committal of a crime even at the command of his evil genius. In vain, with all the artistic craft of a woman, she prayed, implored, cursed, ordered. Ferrari would not be moved from the position which he had taken up, in holding himself aloof from the power of the law. Afraid of her in every other way, he did exactly as she asked him, but in this special case his fear of the visible power of justice was greater than his fear of supernatural visitation from the glance of the evil eye, and after a fortnight's battling Mrs. Belswin was obliged to confess herself beaten by the steady refusal of her slave to obey her in what she desired most of all things to be done.