tisfied, but
not very hopeful about the result.

"I never could understand what financiers and newspapers have to do with
each other," she observed. "They seem to me so different."

"There is not often any resemblance between a horse and his rider," said
Lamberti, enigmatically.

"Will you come this evening and tell us what the lawyer says?" Cecilia
asked.

"Yes, if I may."

"Pray do," said the Countess. "We should so much like to know. Poor
Guido! Good-bye!" Lamberti left the room.

CHAPTER XXVI

When Lamberti reached the Palazzo Farnese at eight o'clock he had all
Guido's receipts for the Princess's money in his pocket. He had
difficulty in getting the lawyer to see him on business so late in the
afternoon, and when he succeeded at last he did not find it easy to
carry matters with a high hand; but he had come prepared to go to any
length, for he was in no gentle humour, and if he could not get the
papers by persuasion, he fully intended to take them by force, though
that might be the end of his career as an officer, and might even bring
him into court for something very like robbery.

The lawyer was obdurate at first. He of course denied all knowledge of
the article in the _Figaro_, but he said that he was the Princess's
legal representative, that the case had been formally placed in his
hands, and that he should use all his professional energy in her
interests.

"After all," said Lamberti at last, "you have nothing but a few informal
bits of writing to base your case upon. They have no legal value."

"They are stamped receipts," answered the lawyer.

"They are not stamped," Lamberti replied.

"They are!"

"They are not!"

"You are giving me the lie, sir," said the lawyer, angrily.

"I say that they are not stamped," retorted Lamberti. "You dare not show
them to me."

The lawyer was human, after all. He opened his safe, in a rage, found
the receipts, and showed one of them to Lamberti triumphantly.

"There!" he cried. "Are they stamped or not? Is the signature written
across the stamp or not?"

Lamberti had the advantage of knowing positively that when Guido had
given the acknowledgments to his aunt, there had been no stamps on them.
He did not know how they had got them now, but he was sure that some
fraud had been committed. It was broad daylight still, and he examined
the signature carefully while the lawyer held the half sheet of note
paper befor