The word assassination was never once uttered by either merchant.
All this buzzed in Gerard's ear. But he never lifted his head from the table; only listened stupidly.
However, when the parties rose and separated, he half raised his head and eyed with a scowl the retiring figure of the purchaser.
"If Margaret was alive," muttered he, "I'd take thee by the throat and throttle thee, thou cowardly stabber. But she is dead; dead; dead. Die all the world; 'tis nought to me: so that I die among the first."
When he got home there was a man in a slouched hat walking briskly to and fro on the opposite side of the way.
"Why there is that cur again," thought Gerard.
But in his state of mind, the circumstance made no impression whatever on him.
CHAPTER LXVIII
TWO nights after this Pietro Vanucci and Andrea sat waiting supper for Gerard.