It opened,
in fact, into the transept of the cathedral, and had been intended
to enable the occupier or occupiers of the apartment, now inhabited
by the lawyer, to enjoy the benefit of attending mass without the
trouble of descending into the church for that purpose. If Signor
Giovacchino Fortini did not often use it for that purpose, it, at
all events, had the effect of imparting an ecclesiastical air to his
habitat, which seemed to have a certain propriety in the case of a
gentleman whose business connections with the hierarchy were so
close, and unquestionably added to the savour of unimpeachable
respectability which appertained to Signor Fortini and all belonging
to him.
Signor Fortini was a tall, thin, adust old man, with a large, well-
developed forehead, a keen, bright hazel eye, and bristling, iron-
grey hair, which had once been black, and a beard to match, which
seemed as if the barber entrusted with the care of it were always
two or three days in arrear with his work. By some incomprehensible
combination of circumstances it seemed as if Signor Fortini's face
were never seen fresh shaven. His sharp chin and lanthorn jaws
appeared to be perennially clothed with a two days' old crop of
grisly stubble,--two days' growth,--neither more nor less!
Long years ago he had buried a childless wife, who was said to have
been a wonderful beauty, and to have been in many ways a trouble
greater than Signor Fortini knew how to manage, and a trial that
made his life a burthen to him.
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