I did so.
"Ah," said the Count, when I concluded, "it is doubtless my valet, who has been masquerading under my title. He ran away from me at the West, nearly three months since, carrying with him three hundred dollars. I set detectives upon his track, but they could find no clue. Is the fellow still at your boarding-house?"
"No, Count, he eloped a week since with a widow, another of our boarders. I believe they are in Philadelphia."
"Then he has deceived the poor woman. Has she got money?"
"A little. I don't think she has much."
"That is what he married her for. Doubtless he supposed her wealthy. He had probably spent all the money he took from me."
"I hope, Count, for the sake of his wife, you will not have him arrested."
Count di Penelli shrugged his shoulders.
"I will let him go at your request, poor devil," he said. "Why did she marry him?"