"Pooh, pooh, my dear boy! Outside the pale of serious discussion. I must have stronger evidence than the solitary testimony of a superstitious and dim-sighted old servant, who in the twilight mistakes some shadow across the stained panes for an apparition." And he waved his hand with a deprecatory gesture, as if wishing to hear no more of the absurd business. I was silent for a time, reflecting on the story I had just heard. If it had stood alone--had been the sole remarkable thing related of the picture--it would not have been entitled to consideration; but so many strange things had occurred in connexion with Angelo's masterpiece that I hesitated before pronouncing Fruin's narration to be a fable, destitute of any foundation whatever. Though at present the affair seemed coloured by the supernatural, it might have a groundwork of fact to rest upon. "Well, Sir Hugh," remarked my uncle, "we must certainly view this mysterious picture in the morning." "Why not now?" I said, jumping to my feet. "Let us see it to-night. I shall not be able to sleep if I go to bed without seeing it." But the Baronet shrugged his shoulders with a good-humoured smile. "No, thank you. We are warm and comfortable here. A walk in a cold picture-gallery by the pale light of the moon is an affront to these cigars and this port. Let us defer our visit till the morning." I was loth to wait till then. The picture had eluded us so long that I thought it quite within the range of probability for it to walk off during the night. "Did Angelo ever speak to you of his stay at Rivoli?" said I to the Baronet. "Never knew he had been there till you mentioned it." "He's a native of the place. He never told you, then, of a little incident that happened in the cathedral of Rivoli?" "You are talking Greek to me--at least, that is," coughed the Baronet, reserving to himself the credit of a classical reputation, "er--Chinese, I should say. What is the little incident to which you refer?" I satisfied Sir Hugh's curiosity by giving him an account of Angelo's expulsion from the Communion. "Did you not ask him the cause of it?" inquired he. "We have never seen him from that day to this," I replied.