et proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that,
in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long
since begun to think--first in fun and then more seriously--of the
palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded
fly. It was at the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.

The princess had, very much against Nina's will, taken her to see the
duchess on the day after their own dance. But a serious indisposition
had prevented the duchess from receiving--not only on that particular
day, but for the rest of the winter. Toward the end of March, however,
in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo
Scorpa.

It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, "like a monster," Nina
said, "of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among
the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it."

Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard. Even the
porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery,
was austere and forbidding. Within, the palace had been refurnished in
the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted
rooms was that of a prison.

One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception
apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her
antipathy. The Scorpas had belonged to the "Blacks," that is to the
ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but
hung in tattered purple silk. On one side stood a solitary piece of
furniture--a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above it
hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy
of red velvet.

"Was he a relation of the duke?" Nina whispered, aghast at the
resemblance.

"Who, child?" asked the princess.

"Rodrigo Borgia."

"No one knows. Hush!"

"But why the throne? Were the Scorpas kings--or what?"

"Before the secular unification of Italy," the princess answered, "the
Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals. There has always been a
Scorpa among the cardinals. The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati.
Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family."

Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI. The sinister
face was so like the present duke's that it made her shudder, and her
imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along
these same stone floors. At t