"As I live and breathe and do the bidding of the lords of Florence, the accursed Medici--I have told the truth. When I am dead, perhaps they will find this book, and, in hell, I shall know and be glad. "MARIA MODENA DI CAVOURI. "Florence, 1476." * * * * * "Whew!" said old Erskine. John laughed. "I don't suppose this charming history would have been any more thrilling if I had read it from the original book, in Italian, of course. Wonder where Uncle got it! There was no mention of it being in the library--but there it was." "Now, will you destroy those boots?" asked Eric, and he was not entirely in jest. But Suzanne said, laughingly, "Not before I find out if the Medici lady had a smaller foot than I! Are they still in the museum, John?" "Never you mind, my dear. They're not for the likes of you." "Oh, don't be silly, John. This is 1935, not the Fifteenth Century." And they laughed at Suzanne's earnestness. The book that held the story of the Medici boots lay on the white cloth, looking like a book of lovely verse. Suzanne, a small white blur against the summer dark, sat quietly while the men talked of Silas Dickerson, his life, his mania for collecting, his death that had so fittingly come to him in his museum. It was nearly twelve when Suzanne left the men on the terrace and with a quiet "good-night" entered the living-room and crossed to the long, shining stairs. The men went on with their talk. Once, John, looking toward the jutting wing that was the museum, exclaimed, "Look at that, will you? Why--I'd swear I saw a light in the museum." "You locked it, didn't you?" asked Eric. "Of course; the key's in my desk upstairs. H-m. I'm probably mistaken, but it did seem as though a light shone there just a moment ago." "Reflection from the living-room window, I think. Country life is making you jittery, John." And Eric laughed at his brother. The men sat on, reluctant to leave the beauty of the night, and it was almost two o'clock when they finally went inside. John said, "I think I'll not disturb Suzanne." And he went to sleep in a wide four-postered bed in a room next to his wife. Eric and the old lawyer were in rooms across the hall. * * * * * The still summer night closed about the house of Silas Dickerson, and when the moon lay dying against the bank of cloud, puffed across a sky by the little wind that came before dawn, young Doctor Eric Delameter awoke, suddenly and completely, to a feeling of clammy apprehension. He had not locked his door, and now, across the grayness of the room, he saw it slowly opening. A hand was closed around the edge of the door--a woman's hand, small and white and jeweled. Eric sat straight and tense on the edge of his bed, peering across the room. A woman, young and slender, in a long, trailing gown, came toward him smiling. It was Suzanne.