As his mind dwelt on
the matter the case against Paolina seemed to acquire additional
force. It could be proved that this girl had been deeply and
seriously attached to the Marchese Ludovico. It could be proved that
she had seen her lover tete-a-tete with so dangerous a rival as the
singer in circumstances that she had every right to consider very
suspicious. It could be proved that she had been not far from the
spot where the murder was committed much about the time when the
deed must have been done.
It is an essentially and curiously Italian characteristic that the
lawyer's rapidly growing conviction that Paolina had indeed been the
criminal was strengthened and made easier of acceptance to his mind
by the fact that the suspected criminal was not; a townswoman but a
Venetian. It would have seemed less possible to him that a young
Ravenna girl should have done such a deed. But one of those terrible
Venetian women of whom so many blood-stained tale of passion and
crime were on record!
Signor Fortini really began to think that his mind had strayed into
the true path towards the solution of the mystery at last. And he
was very much inclined to think that the germ of such a notion had
already been deposited in the mind of the Police Commissioner.
In any case here was wherewithal to establish such a case of
suspicion as should make it difficult for the tribunal to condemn
the Marchesino on such evidence as could be brought against him,
supposing no new circumstances to be brought to light.
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