[Transcriber's note: Both "Matilde" and "Matilda" appear in the source
text.]


TAQUISARA

BY

F. MARION CRAWFORD

1895




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,