"Oh, what have I done!" cried the lad, catching him in his arms and hurriedly lowering him into a settee, before fetching him water in a silver cup and holding it to his lips.--"Feel better now?" he said. "Oh yes, it's nothing. Don't laugh at me, please. I turned faint like a great silly girl. You touched the tenderest place, where my arm was hurt, and--" "Denis, boy! May I come in?" "Yes, yes," said the lad faintly. "Come in. Carrbroke, this is Master Leoni, the gentleman who handles his sword so well." "I am glad to know you, sir," said the youth, drawing himself up and welcoming with courtly grace the slight, keen-looking, elderly man whose strange, penetrating eyes seemed to be searching him through and through. "I am so sorry that I was asleep when you came last night. I was helping my father's visitor just now, and I am afraid I have hurt him a great deal. His shoulder is hurt, and he tells me that it has not been treated by a leech." "Hurt?" cried Leoni, speaking quickly. "I did not know of this. Why did you not tell me last night?" "Oh, I didn't think," said Denis. "I had enough to do to sit my horse and manage to get here; and," added the lad lightly, "I thought that it would be better." "Ah," said Master Leoni quietly, "let me see." And he looked at the boy fixedly with that curious hard stare of the left eye which Denis never could explain. "Oh no; I'm nearly dressed now, and breakfast is waiting." "How did this happen?" said Leoni, paying no heed to the lad's words. "Sit still, boy, and tell me everything at once." Denis gave a hurried narrative of his encounter, and his listeners eagerly grasped every word. "I see," said Leoni gravely. "Your blade must have passed through the ruffian, and been held long enough by the muscles for you to receive a horrible wrench. There, set your teeth, and if I hurt you try and bear it. I will be as gentle as I can." A rapid examination followed, and then the carefully educated fingers ceased their task, and Leoni spoke again as he drew a white kerchief from his pouch and gently wiped his patient's moistened brow. "There is nothing wrong," he said, "but a bad strain at the tendons, and of course the slightest touch gives great suffering. I will return directly. I am only going to my room for something that will lull that pain, and nature will do the rest." He nodded gravely to both the lads, and passed quickly from the room, while as the door closed the young Englishman said eagerly: "I like him. He seems to know a deal. But you said that he was a _maitre d'armes_." "He's everything," said Denis with a faint laugh--"_chirurgien_, statesman--oh, I can't tell you all. Oh, how he hurt me, though! If you hadn't been here I believe I should have shrieked." "Not you," cried the other. "I was watching, and I saw how you set your teeth. Why, if he had pulled your arm off you wouldn't have said a word. I say, I wish you were English."