that the new was to be
permanent, if not everlasting. If he had, he would have acted very
differently, I am sure, and my present duty would have been much
easier than it is. Are you quite certain that you understand that?'

Angela was quite certain that she did, and nodded quietly, though she
could not see how her father's political convictions could affect her
own present situation.

'I have no doubt,' continued the Princess, 'that he brought you up to
consider yourself the heiress of all his fortune, though not of the
title, which naturally goes to the eldest male heir. Am I right?'

'He never told me anything about my inheritance,' Angela replied.

'So much the better. It will be easier for me to explain your rather
unusual position. In the first place, I must make it clear to you that
your father and mother declined to go before the mayor at the Capitol
when they were married, in spite of the regulations which had then
been in force a number of years. They were devout Catholics and the
blessing of the Church was enough for them. According to your father,
to go through any form of civil ceremony, before or after the wedding,
was equivalent to doubting the validity of the sacrament of marriage.'

'Naturally,' Angela assented, as her aunt paused and looked at her.

'Very naturally.' The Princess's eyes began to glitter oddly, and the
lawyer turned his hat uneasily on his knees. 'Very naturally, indeed!
Unfortunately for you, however, your father was not merely overlooking
a municipal regulation, as he supposed; he was deliberately bidding
defiance to the laws of Italy.'

'What do you mean?' asked Angela rather nervously.

'It is very painful to explain,' answered the elder woman with
gleaming eyes and a disagreeable smile. 'The simple truth is that as
your father and mother were not civilly married--civilly, you
understand--they were not legally married at all, and the law will
never admit that they were!'

Angela's hand tightened on the arm of the old sofa.

'Not married?' she cried. 'My father and mother not married? It is
impossible, it is monstrous----'

'Not "legally" married, I said,' replied the Princess. 'To be legally
married, it is absolutely necessary to go before the mayor at the
Capitol and have the civil ceremony properly performed. Am I right?'
she asked, turning suddenly to the lawyer. 'It is absolutely
necessary, is it not?'

'Absolutely, Excellency,' the legal adviser answered. 'Otherwi