"I am glad to hear it," answered Giraldi. "The best ornament of youth is a grateful disposition. As a reward for it I can impart to you the good brother's blessing. I have just received a letter from him. But of that later. First, as to your business here. Have you at last again seen and spoken with her?" "Only seen, signor--as she left her studio just now to go home. I do not venture to speak to her. She talks, they say, to no one, and no one dares go into her studio except----" "Her father, probably." "A lady, signor, in black, and thickly veiled, who goes to her studio regularly every afternoon. The students take her to be a model." It must be decided now; Antonio's heart beat till Giraldi's answer came. "A lady in black and thickly veiled," repeated Giraldi slowly, as if he was deeply considering the matter; "and only a model? That is surely very unlikely, and very suspicious. We must try to get to the bottom of this." He lied. It flashed like lightning through Antonio's mind that to this man he had confided his secret, the treason which he contemplated, his criminal desires, the very plan of his revenge; he had given all--all into his hands, as to the priest in the confessional, and he lied! "I have tried to get to the bottom of it, signor," he said, "but in vain. As she comes and goes while our studio is full of men, I cannot watch her through the door, nor absent myself without causing a sensation. Yesterday I tried under some pretext, but I was too late. A carriage--not an ordinary cab, signor, but a fly--was standing a few yards from the house under the trees near the canal; the unknown got in, and vanished from me in a moment." "He will be more cunning next time," thought Giraldi; "she must on no account go again." "At what time does she come?" he asked. "Between five and six at first; now, I suppose on account of greater security, between four and five." "Good! To-morrow I will myself keep watch in my carriage; she shall not escape us, you may depend upon it. And now to continue, has nothing of importance transpired in the conversations between your maestro and the Captain? The name in question not been mentioned?" "No, signor; on the contrary, since the young lady went away----" "I know, three days ago." "They have been very prudent, and speak so low, that it is impossible to catch more than a word here and there. But instead I have just found this letter, which the maestro received to-day and has read through at least a dozen times, and also showed it to the Captain, who came in the middle of the day." "It was dangerous to steal a letter which awakens such interest." "The maestro threw it into his desk, as he does all his letters, and when he went out, locked it up, and took the key with him; but I have long known how to open that frail lock without a key. To-morrow he will find the letter again in his desk." "Who is it from?" "From the young lady, I think. It is an abominable handwriting, signor."