Chapter 1
_ CHAPTER I
"Where shall I sign my name?"
Veronica Serra‘s thin, dark fingers rolled the old silver penholder nervously as she sat at one end of the long library table, looking up at the short, stout man who stood beside her.
"Here, if you please, Excellency," answered Lamberto Squarci, with an affable smile.
His fingers were dark, too, but not thin, and they were smooth and dingy and very pointed, a fact which the young princess noticed with dislike, as he indicated the spot on the broad sheet of rough, hand-made paper, where he wished her to sign. A thrill of repulsion that was strong enough to be painful ran through her, and she rolled the penholder still more quickly and nervously, so that she almost dropped it, and a little blot of ink fell upon the sheet before she had begun to write.
"Oh! It is of no importance!" said the Neapolitan notary, in a reassuring tone. "A little ink more or less!"
He had some pink blotting-paper ready, and was already app

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