One afternoon, in the private cabinet of that colossal building, the Ministry of the Interior, his Excellency handed his English friend a formidable document bearing many signatures with the official seal of the Government embossed, a document which gave Lord Nassington the exclusive right to establish motor-transport for both merchandise and passengers upon every highway in the kingdom. In exchange, his Excellency received an undertaking signed by a responsible firm in the City of London to place to the account of Madame Boncini at the Credit Lyonnais in Paris the respectable sum of one hundred thousand pounds within seven days. "I shall return at once to London," his Lordship said replacing the formidable document in its envelope, "and in exchange for this, the financial group will at once pay in the sum to Madame's account in Paris, while the actual sum for the concession will be paid here, in Rome, to the Department of Finance, on the date stipulated." "Benissimo," replied the grey-bearded statesman, holding one of his long Toscano cigars in the candle which he had lit for that purpose. "It is all settled. You will dine with us at home to-night." His Lordship accepted, and after further discussion regarding several minor details of the concession he rose and left. That night he dined at the Peruzzi Palace, seated next his Excellency's charming daughter, and next morning left the Excelsior in his big red car, to run as far as Bologna and thence return to London by rail. With her father's consent Velia her cousin and Signora Ciullini, her aunt, accompanied him and they set out across the Maremma for marble-built Pisa, where the girls were to return home by rail. The more direct road was by Orvieto, but it is not so good as that wide, open road across the fever-marshes of the Maremma, therefore his Lordship resolved on taking the latter. The day was glorious, and travelling for all they were worth with only two stops to refill with petrol, they ran into Pisa late that same night. The sleeping-car express from Paris to Rome was due in half an hour, therefore after a scrambling meal at the Victoria the aristocratic motorist saw the girls and their aunt safely into the train--kissing Velia in secret by the way--and waving them "addio," watched the train glide out of the big echoing station again. Then, with Garrett at his side, he turned the big car with its glaring head-lights out of the big gates through the town along the Lung' Arno and into the high road for Florence. In the early morning he passed through the dimly-lit deserted streets of the City of the Medici, and away beyond, through Prato, to the foot-hills of the Appenines where he began to ascend that wonderfully engineered military road which runs, with many dangerous turns for motorists, high up across the mountain range, and ends in the long colonnaded street of old Bologna.