Montanelli turned abruptly away.
“I have only one offering to give,” he said; “a broken heart.”
A few days later the Gadfly returned to Florence in the diligence from Pistoja. He went straight to Gemma's lodgings, but she was out. Leaving a message that he would return in the morning he went home, sincerely hoping that he should not again find his study invaded by Zita. Her jealous reproaches would act on his nerves, if he were to hear much of them to-night, like the rasping of a dentist's file.
“Good-evening, Bianca,” he said when the maid-servant opened the door. “Has Mme. Reni been here to-day?”
She stared at him blankly
“Mme. Reni? Has she come back, then, sir?”
“What do you mean?” he asked with a frown, stopping short on the mat.
“She went away quite suddenly, just after you did, and left all her things behind her. She never so much as said she was going.”
“Just after I did? What, a f-fortnight ago?”