“Ah, how do you do, Signor Tarsis?” she said, breezily, going forward to take his hand. “I have come from Milan. The finishing touch has been given to the arrangements. All is in readiness. They say there has been a terrible hailstorm. Hera, my dear, I warned you a storm was brewing. I hope you were not caught in it, and you, Signor Tarsis?” He answered that they both had been overtaken and both had found shelter in the monastery. “Indeed! How interesting!” Donna Beatrice exclaimed. “A most romantic coincidence, upon my word!” Neither of the others joined to her tittering the shadow of a smile, but Donna Beatrice was not surprised, for she had guessed that some grave disturbance of the peace had occurred. She shivered at the thought that the great consummation booked for to-morrow might be in jeopardy. “I beg your pardon, Signor Tarsis,” she chirped, “but I am going to ask Hera to come with me for a little while--just a moment before dinner. You will not mind, I am sure. It is--let us say--the last pre-nuptial secret. After to-day no more secrets.” Her small laugh sounded again, and slipping her arm within Hera’s she drew her toward the door. Hera held back a little as they passed Tarsis, and, to the elder woman’s deeper mystification, said to him, softly: “I will write the telegram.” Tarsis returned a low bow, saying, “At your pleasure.” They ascended to Donna Beatrice’s apartments. “Hera, I am positive that something dreadful has happened!” the aunt announced, when they were alone. “Something dreadful was about to happen,” Hera explained, “but I have averted it.” “I beseech you,” cried Donna Beatrice, “not to speak in riddles. In the name of heaven, what have you done?” “I have told Signor Tarsis that I cannot be his wife.” CHAPTER VI A CENSORED DESPATCH THOUGH expectant of some shocking disclosure, and nerved for it, Donna Beatrice was not equal to an utter smash-up of all that she had planned and executed so satisfactorily to herself. “Mario Forza!” she shrieked when the power to articulate was hers once more. “Oh, I knew it would be! From the first I saw the danger! We are ruined! To-morrow they will be here with their bills, a pack of hungry wolves. Hera! Wicked, heartless, cruel! Have you no mercy for me, for your father?” In her violent agitation of mind, only half conscious of her words and acts, she moved into the corridor, beating her temples and wailing. “Riccardo! Oh, my brother, where are you in this most terrible of moments?” she cried out with all the voice she could muster. “Calamity has befallen us! Search for him, everybody. Search for Don Riccardo!”