But Alfieri's passionate and ill-advised,
attempt to abduct Mrs. Haxton had changed the whole aspect of affairs.
No wonder the stout and pompous little man fumed and fretted in vain,
endeavor to climb out of this unexpected pit.
Alfieri looked at his restless companion in moody silence. In aspect,
he was the exact opposite to the podgy Governor. Slender, and loosely
built, he had the large, sunken eyes of a dreamer, the narrow forehead
of the self-opinionated, the delicate nostrils and mobile mouth of the
neurotic temperament. It was easy to see that such a man would brood
over an injury, real or imagined, till he had lashed himself into a
tempest of wrath. His emotions could know no mean. From sullen despair
he could rebound to the most extravagant optimism. That very day he had
rushed away from the painstaking details of a semi-scientific
expedition in order to--gratify a Sicilian impulse which called for the
ruthless settlement of an old score.
Even now, the sense of failure rankled deeper than the contemptuous
anger of his fellow-countryman; but the practical-minded Governor had
no intent to leave matters where they stood.
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