The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Intriguers, by William Le Queux

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Title: The Intriguers

Author: William Le Queux

Release Date: June 11, 2010 [EBook #32770]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE INTRIGUERS

BY

WILLIAM LE QUEUX
Author of "The Doctor of Pimlico," etc.

NEW YORK
THE MACAULAY COMPANY

Copyright, 1921
BY THE MACAULAY COMPANY

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.

[Illustration: Madame Quero was startled.]

THE INTRIGUERS

CHAPTER I

The scene was Dean Street, Soho, and this story opens on a snowy
winter night in the January of 1888. The modern improvements of
Shaftesbury Avenue were as yet unmade, and the foreign district of
London had still to be opened up.

A cold north wind was blowing on the few pedestrians whom necessity,
or some urgent obligation, had compelled to tramp the pavements laden
with snow. A few cabs and carriages crawled along the difficult
roadway to the Royalty Theatre, deposited their occupants and crawled
back again.

Nello Corsini, a slim, handsome young Italian, poorly clad, carrying a
violin-case in one hand, wandered down the narrow street, leading with
his other a slender girl of about eighteen, his sister, Anita. She was
dressed as shabbily as he was.

The snow was lying thickly on the streets and roads, but it had ceased
to fall a couple of hours ago. The two itinerant musicians had crept
out at once, as soon as the weather showed signs of mending, from
their poor lodging.

They had only a few pence left. The bitter weather of the last few
days had affected their miserable trade very adversely. It was
necessary they should take advantage of to-night, for the purpose of
scratching together something for the evening meal.

There were lights in several windows. It was, of course, far from
being a wealthy quarter; but there could be none behind those
warm-looking lights, saf