le image in the Vatican, where the light streamed full on
the cold face, that for centuries has been the synonym of blended
beauty and cruelty. In her ears rang again the words her father had
rend aloud at her side, while she sketched: "But he does not inspire
confidence, by the smile that would like to express goodness. The
finely cut underlip that rises from the strongly marked hollow over the
chin ought to sharpen with a dash of contempt the conscious superiority
that lies upon his broad, magnificent forehead. His smile is in strong
contrast with the cold gaze of the large open eyes; a gaze that
hesitates not, but without mercy verifies a judgment fixed in advance,
that gives up every one to condemnation."

The dusty crowded court-room appeared to swim in the rich aroma
distilled from the creamy hearts of Roman hyacinths; and the velvet
lips of purple Roman violets suddenly babbled out the secret of the
mysterious repulsion which had puzzled her, from the hour in which she
first looked into Mr. Dunbar's face; his strange resemblance to the
Chiaramonti Tiberius, which she had studied and copied so carefully. In
days gone by, the subtle repose, the marvelous beauty of that marble
face, where as yet the demon of destruction had cast no stain,
possessed a singular fascination for her; and now the haunting likeness
which had perplexed her at Elm Bluff, became associated inseparably
with old Bedney's description of Mr. Dunbar's merciless treatment of
witnesses, and Beryl realized with alarming clearness that in her
grandfather's lawyer she had met the incarnation of her cruel fate.

Standing quite near her, he gravely related, with emphatic distinctness
and careful detail, his first meeting with the prisoner on the piazza
at Elm Bluff, and the vivid impression she left on his mind; his return
to Elm Bluff about half-past nine the same evening, in order to get a
deed which he had forgotten to put into his pocket at the first visit.
Learning that General Darrington had not yet retired for the night, he
sent in to ask for the deed, and was summoned "to come and get it
himself." On entering the bedroom, he found his client wrapped in a
cashmere dressing-gown, and sitting in an easy chair by the window,
which opened on the north or front piazza. He appeared much perturbed
and harassed, and in reply to inquiries touching his health, answered
that he was "completely shaken up, and unnerved, by a very stormy and
disagreeable inte