Farewell, Signora, we shall meet again."
CHAPTER II
Was it Paolina after all?
Orsola Steno quitted the lawyer's studio as entirely contented with
the result of her interview as she left him. She doubted not that
she had fully impressed him with her own conviction as to the
explanation of the mysterious circumstances of the singer's death;
that Paolina's innocence would be readily recognized; and that her
adopted daughter would shortly be restored to her in the Via di Sta.
Eufemia.
The lawyer remained for some time seated in his chair in deep
thought after his visitor had left him.
Suddenly he let his open hand fall heavily with a loud clap on the
table before him, disturbing the papers on it from their places, and
causing the fine blue sand, which stood in an open wooden basin for
the purpose of doing the office of blotting-paper, to be spilled in
all directions by the concussion, and said aloud, "By God! That girl
has done it!"
"Ah, talk of the passions of men," he went on, in a lower muttering
voice, after some further moments of meditation; "they are nothing--
they are child's play compared to the blind animal-like impulses
that force a woman's will into their service when any of the master
passions of the sex are touched. A woman's jealousy; it is as plain
as the sun at noonday.
Pages:
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590