me give up this estate to Brian, and make him happy with the woman that
he loves. When he is married to Elizabeth you shall never see my face
again."

"This is your proposition?" said Percival, after a little pause.

"Yes."

"If I give up Elizabeth"--he forgot that he had not meant to call her by
her Christian name in Dino Vasari's presence--"you will give up your
claim to the property?"

"Yes."

"And if I refuse, what will you do?"

"Fight the matter out by the help of the lawyers," said Dino, with an
irrepressible flash of his dark eyes. And then there was another pause,
during which Percival knitted his brows and gazed into the fire, and
Dino never took his eyes from the other's face.

"Well, I refuse," said Percival at last, getting up and walking about
the room, with an air of being more angry than he really was. "I will
have none of your crooked Italian ways. Fair play is the best way of
managing this matter. I refuse to carry out my share of this 'amicable
arrangement,' as Brett would call it. Let us fight it out. Every man for
himself, and the devil take the hindmost."

The last sentence was an English one.

"But what satisfaction will the fight give to anybody?" said Dino,
earnestly. "For myself--I may gain the estate--I probably shall do
so--and what use shall I make of it? I might give it, perhaps, to Brian,
but what pleasure would it be to him if she married you? Miss Murray
will be left in poverty."

"And do you think she will care for that? Do you think I should care?"

"Money is a good thing: it is not well to despise it," said Dino. "Think
what you are doing. If you refuse my proposition you deprive Miss Murray
of her estate, and--I leave you to decide whether you deprive her of her
happiness."

"Miss Murray can refuse me if she chooses," said Percival, shortly. "I
should be a great fool if I handed her over at your recommendation to a
man that I know nothing about. Besides, you could not do it. This
Italian friend of yours, this Prior of San Stefano, would not let the
matter fall through. He and Brett would bring forward the witnesses----"

Dino turned his eyes slowly upon him with a curiously subtle look.

"No," he said. "I have received news to-day which puts the matter
completely in my own hands. Vincenza Vasari is dead: Rosa Naldi is
dying. They were in a train when a railway accident took place. They
will never be able to appear as witnesses."

"But they made depositions----"