rsuasion. The
sudden hope he held out to her was delicious to contemplate. She could
not realise that Del Ferice, having once thoroughly interested her, could
play upon her moods as on the keys of an instrument. If she had been less
anxious that the story he told should be true, she might have suspected
that he was practising upon her credulity. But she seized the idea of
obtaining some secret influence over the life of Giovanni, and it
completely carried her away.

"You must tell me--I am sure you will," she said, letting her kindest
glance rest upon her companion. "Come and dine with me,--do you fast?
No--nor I. Come on Friday--will you?"

"I shall be delighted," answered Del Ferice, with a quiet smile of
triumph.

"I will have the old lady, of course, so you cannot tell me at dinner;
but she will go to sleep soon afterwards--she always does. Come at seven.
Besides, she is deaf, you know."

The old lady in question was the aged Countess whom Donna Tullia affected
as a companion in her solitary magnificence.

"And now, will you take me back to the ball-room? I have an idea that a
partner is looking for me."

Del Ferice left her dancing, and went home in his little coupe. He was
desperately fatigued, for he was still very weak, and he feared lest his
imprudence in going out so soon might bring on a relapse from his
convalescence. Nevertheless, before he went to bed he dismissed
Temistocle, and opened a shabby-looking black box which stood upon his
writing-table. It was bound with iron, and was fastened by a patent lock
which had frequently defied Temistocle's ingenuity. Prom this repository
he took a great number of papers, which were all neatly filed away and
marked in the owner's small and ornamented handwriting. Beneath many
packages of letters he found what he sought for, a long envelope
containing several folded documents.

He spread out the papers and read them carefully over.

"It is a very singular thing," he said to himself; "but there can be no
doubt about it. There it is."

He folded the papers again, returned them to their envelope, and replaced
the latter deep among the letters in his box. He then locked it, attached
the key to a chain he wore about his neck, and went to bed, worn out
with fatigue.

CHAPTER XXI.

Del Ferice had purposely excited Donna Tullia's curiosity, and he meant
before long to tell more than he had vouchsafed in his first confidence.
But he himself trembled befor