The woman rose and took from a drawer the photograph of a man. He was clearly a professional acrobat, a man of magnificent physique, taken with his huge arms folded across his swollen chest and a smile breaking from under his heavy moustache⁠—the self-satisfied smile of the man of many conquests.

“That is Leonardo,” she said.

“Leonardo, the strong man, who gave evidence?”

“The same. And this⁠—this is my husband.”

It was a dreadful face⁠—a human pig, or rather a human wild boar, for it was formidable in its bestiality. One could imagine that vile mouth champing and foaming in its rage, and one could conceive those small, vicious eyes darting pure malignancy as they looked forth upon the world. Ruffian, bully, beast⁠—it was all written on that heavy-jowled face.