"
"I give no reasons. I pay for the work I want done, and, in
return for my liberality, I am treated with the most infamous
indifference on all sides. A stranger in the country, and badly
acquainted with the language, I can do nothing to help myself.
The authorities, both at Rome and in this place, pretend to
assist me, pretend to search and inquire as I would have them
search and inquire, and do nothing more. I am insulted, laughed
at, almost to my face."
"Do you not think it possible--mind, I have no wish to excuse the
misconduct of the authorities, and do not share in any such
opinion myself--but do you not think it likely that the police
may doubt whether you are in earnest?"
"Not in earnest!" he cried, starting up and confronting me
fiercely, with wild eyes and quickened breath. "Not in earnest!
_You_ think I'm not in earnest too. I know you think it, though
you tell me you don't. Stop; before we say another word, your own
eyes shall convince you. Come here--only for a minute--only for
one minute!"
I followed him into his bedroom, which opened out of the
sitting-room. At one side of his bed stood a large packing-case
of plain wood, upward of seven feet in length.
"Open the lid and look in," he said, "while I hold the candle so
that you can see.
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