digesting his letter from Miss Sandus,
when it was followed by the somewhat startling visit of Commendatore
Fregi; and perhaps he was still under the impression of that, when, in
the afternoon, he was summoned from a game of tennis, to receive the
communication which I transcribe below, from the Contessa di Sampaolo.
It was brought to him by a Capuchin friar, a soft-spoken, aged man,
with a long milk-white beard, who said he would wait for an answer.

The Pontes, their tennis thus interrupted, strolled off towards the
stables, leading Adrian with them,--an Adrian consumed, I fancy, by
curiosity to know what business a Capuchin friar might have to transact
with his friend. "Of course it is something to do with the plots and
plans of my lady," he reflected; "but exactly _what_? If people take
you into their confidence, they ought to take you into the entirety of
it, and keep you _au courant_ as the theme develops."

Anthony paused for an instant to admire his correspondent's strong,
clear-flowing, determined hand; and then, in that stiff-jointed, formal
Tuscan of the schools, which no human being was ever heard to speak,
but educated Italians will persist in writing, he read:--

"Illustrissimo Signore e caro Cugino"--Nay, better translate:--

"Most Illustrious Sir and dear Cousin: From my earliest childhood I
have always felt that the Revolution of 1850 was accompanied by great
injustices, and particularly that, without reference to the political
changes, there should have been no transfer of the hereditaments of our
family from the legal heir, your Excellency's father, then a minor, to
his uncle, my grandfather. At the age of twelve I made a vow, before
the shrine of our Sainted Progenitor, that if ever the power to do so
should be mine, I would set this injustice right.

"By the testament of my father, however, I was left under the control
of a guardian until I was twenty-two, which age I attained in April
last. Since April I have been constantly in the intention of restoring
to the head of my family the properties that are rightly his. But many
impeding circumstances, besides the dissuasions of friends whose age
and wisdom I was concerned to regard, have detained me until now, when,
learning that your Excellency is sojourning in the island, I feel that
I must no longer postpone an act of due reparation.

"As I am but the life-tenant of these estates, and as your Excellency,
being my nearest male kinsman, is l