pletely dazed by what had happened to think very connectedly.
Besides, though she did not dare let the thought give her courage, she
still had a secret conviction that it was all a mistake and that her
father must have left some document which would be found among his
papers the next day, and would clear away all this dreadful
misunderstanding.

As for the rest of her aunt's story, no one had ever hinted at such a
thing in her hearing, but Madame Bernard would know the truth. There
was little indeed which the excellent Frenchwoman did not know about
the old Roman families, after having lived among them and taught their
children French for nearly a quarter of a century. She was very
discreet and might not wish to say much, but she certainly knew the
truth in this case.

It was not till she was upstairs in her own room, and was trying to
repeat to her old governess just what had been said, that Angela began
to realise what it meant. Madame Bernard was by turns horrified,
righteously angry, and moved to profound pity; at first she could not
believe her ears, but when she did she invoked the divine wrath on the
inhuman monster who had the presumption to call herself a woman, a
mother, and an aunt; finally, she folded Angela in a motherly embrace
and burst into tears, promising to protect her at the risk of her own
life--a promise she would really have kept if the girl had been in
bodily danger.

In her secret heart the little Frenchwoman was also making some
reflections on the folly and obstinacy of the late Prince, but out of
sheer kindness and tact she kept them to herself for the present.
Meanwhile she said she would go and consult one of the great legal
lights, to whose daughters she had lately given lessons and who had
always been very kind to her. It was nonsense, she said, to believe
that the Prince's brother could turn Angela out of her home without
making provision for her, such a liberal provision as would be
considered a handsome dowry--four hundred thousand francs would be the
very least. The Commendatore was a judge in the Court of Appeals and
knew everything. He would not even need to consult his books! His
brain was an encyclopaedia of the law! She would go to him at once.

But Angela shook her head as she sat looking at the small wood fire in
the old-fashioned red-brick fireplace. Now that she had told her story
she saw how very sure the Princess and the lawyer must have been to
speak as they had both s