“Yes, it is indeed more than a hundred years,” remarked Donna Beatrice, adjusting her lorgnette. “Our eighteenth Riccardo was the last of the line to dwell here. With this day, Antonio,” she added, beaming upon the bridegroom, “we may say with literal truth that the restoration begins. Ah, that eighteenth Duke was an open-handed nobleman--a lord of regal expenditure. Lombardy never had so liberal a patron of the beautiful arts. These mural paintings, I believe, are the fruit of his munificence.” “Yes; our great grandfather,” mused the living Duke, casting his eye about the stairway. “Still, I should be none the less proud of him had he lavished less on his walls and more on his posterity.” They ascended the broad steps, and Donna Beatrice, primed with the lore of the place, began to radiate her knowledge. The staircase, with its balustrade of richly carved Carrara, she announced was a product of Vanitelli, and the solitary work Milan possessed of that great architect. This acquisition, as well as many more to which she drew his attention, proved a surprise to the new lord of the palace. The idea of buying the mediæval pile came to Tarsis--so he believed--as an inspiration, and he had lost not a second in giving it practical form. Accompanied by the owner--a Genoese money-lender--he went there one morning, and spent something less than half an hour looking about the palace, the stables, and the grounds. Before the day was out he had bound the bargain with his check. Within twenty-four hours the contractor and his gang attacked the house, armed with authority to renovate and restore. It was with a newly-awakened interest, therefore--not unmixed with an appreciation of its humorous side--that Tarsis listened to Donna Beatrice’s running talk. In a manner that made him think of the guides in the Brera Gallery she reeled off the history of this painting or that medallion, explained the frescoes of the ceiling, and identified the busts in the niches, with their age-old faces shining again like newly scrubbed schoolboys. A sculptured frieze that bordered the staircase pictured a battle between the Lombards and the Barbiondi in the days of King Alboin. Above it, following the long flight of steps, unfolded a panorama of scenes from the life of Mary. At the top of the staircase, set in the wall, was a trophy that had been sawed out of a church by some conquering Barbiondi. It depicted St. Mark preaching at Alexandria. In the banquet hall were some less pious conceptions of beauty. Here the mural art found expression in a hunting scene and a mediæval dance with the hills of the Brianza in the background.