“Not at all impossible, Uncle Augustus,” said a full rich voice, and thereupon, following close upon the heels of Mrs. Rapp, there advanced into the room a tall and stately female figure, attired in black. Pausing in the middle of the floor, she raised the veil which had hitherto partially shrouded her features. The captain stared for a moment or two, and then from his lips broke the one word, “Giovanna!” “Yes, it is I—your niece Giovanna—come all the way from Italy to see you.” Mrs. Rapp discreetly withdrew. Notwithstanding her years, which now numbered not far short of forty, Giovanna was still a very handsome woman, with a large and generous style of beauty which would have made her a striking figure anywhere. Although she called the Captain uncle, there was no blood relationship between the two, her mother having been merely Augustus Verinder’s stepsister by a previous marriage. They had never met but once before, when the Captain had spent a month at the _osteria_ of Giuseppe Rispani, Giovanna being at that time a girl of sixteen. Ever since her desertion of her husband in America she had passed as a widow—la Signora Alessandro. She had not been without offers of marriage meanwhile, but had not seen her way to accept any of them. As to whether her husband was alive or dead, she had no knowledge. Giuseppe Rispani had recently died, and Vanna, having realised the small fortune bequeathed her by him, had now come to England, which she had long wished to visit. In the course of the confidential talk that ensued between Vanna and her uncle she was induced by the latter to relate to him all about her marriage, the details of which were quite new to him. She began by telling him of the arrival of the young Englishman, Mr. Alexander, at Catanzaro; of his long stay at the _osteria_ of the Golden Fig; of the coming of two other Englishmen, one of whom proved to be the father of Mr. Alexander, and of their departure next day. Then she proceeded to recount how the young Englishman proposed to her, how she accepted him, and how she did not learn till her marriage-day that her husband’s full name was John Alexander Clare. She made no mention of her father’s discovery by means of the peephole in the ceiling, but simply said, “I knew before my marriage that my husband’s father, on the occasion of his visit, had given him six thousand pounds in English money.” Then she went on to tell of the departure of her husband and herself for America, of the death of their child; and of their subsequent separation, which she made out to have been a matter of mutual arrangement; and wound up by saying, “From that day to this I have heard no tidings of my husband.” “Neither, I’ll wager, have you ever made any effort to find out who the father was that could afford to give his son six thousand pounds in order to get rid of him,” remarked the Captain when she had come to the end of her narrative. “No. What business was it of mine?” demanded Vanna with a stare.