"You are very polite, Signor Dottore, I am sure," said the old woman, hesitatingly; for she was alarmed at the idea, which the lawyer's courtesy had suggested to her cautious mind, that she might be supposed to be engaging his professional services, and might thus find herself, before she was aware of it, involved in expenses which she had no means of meeting, and no intention of incurring; "you are extremely polite, but--you see, Signor, it is best to speak plainly--I am a very poor woman; and I have not the means--and I am sure--perhaps I ought not to have troubled sua Signoria; but it was the Contessa Violante who advised me to come to you." "Indeed; I am beholden to the Signora Contessa Violante. As you say most judiciously, Signora, it is best to speak quite plainly. With regard to any professional services, which it might be otherwise in my power to render you, it is necessary to say at once that I am engaged in this most unhappy business on the behalf of my old client and friend the Marchese Ludovico di Castelmare. There can be no question, therefore, of any professional remuneration to me in the matter from any other quarter. Anything that may pass between us," he continued, perceiving that his visitor had not fully comprehended what he sought to convey to her, "must be of the nature of private conversation, and will not entail on you," he added, yet more plainly with a good-humoured smile, and putting his hand on her sleeve as he spoke, "any possible expense whatever." "Thank you kindly, sir; and, truth to say, it is not so much that I wanted to ask you to say or to do anything, as only just not to say what a many people in this city are wicked enough to say and to think," said old Orsola, much re-assured, and persuaded that she was approaching the business in hand in the most cautious and clever manner imaginable. "I hope, Signora, that I shall not say anything which it is wicked to say; but what is it that people are wicked enough to say?" rejoined the lawyer, who knew now perfectly well what the wicked saying was. "Why they say, Signor Dottore--some of them--some of them are wicked enough to say that that dear blessed child has--it is enough to blister one's tongue to say it--has done that dreadful thing; Santa Maria abbia misericordia--that murder in the forest. O Dio mio! Why--" "Is she any relative of yours, Signora, the Signorina Paolina Foscarelli?" asked the lawyer, quietly. "No relative by blood, Signor; but she is the same to me as a daughter. I took her when she was left an orphan--" "And she has lived with you ever since?"