The amber merchant departed on the following morning; then Blanden was particularly struck with the man's rugged, furrowed features; his whole demeanour told of a ruined, wasted life. When he had received the heavy price for his goods, and had the door-latch in his hand, he turned suddenly round once more, and while closely contracting his bushy eyebrows, and darting evil-boding flashes from his glowing eyes, he asked--
"You can probably tell me, Herr von Blanden, where the Signora now lives whom you once visited on Lago Maggiore?"
"Why do you ask this question?"
"I have a reason for interesting myself in that lady."
"She does not owe you anything? Certainly in those days you did not deal in amber?"
"My interest in her is of another kind, and in addition my secret."
"But how do you know--"
"I stood on the shore of the Lago as you and she stepped out of the gondola; I stood at the gate of the garden whence you issued at an early morning hour."
"Ah! now I recollect--you followed me even, so that I might have taken you for a hired bravo."
"You would have been mistaken. I am an honest man."