At a little after twelve o'clock on that same Ash Wednesday morning,
a servant in the Castelmare livery brought a verbal message to the
"studio" of Signor Giovacchino Fortini, "procurators,"--attorney-at-
law, as we should say,--requesting that gentleman to step as far as
the Palazzo Castelmare, as the Marchese would be glad to speak with
him.

The message was not one calculated to excite any surprise either in
the servant who carried it, or in Signor Fortini himself. Signor
Giovacchino was, and had been for many years, the confidential
lawyer of the Castelmare family. And the various business connected
with large landed possessions made frequent conferences necessary
between the lawyer and such a client as the Marchese, who, among his
other activities, had always been active in the management and care
of his estates.

Signor Giovacchino Fortini was very decidedly the first man of his
profession in Ravenna, as indeed might be expected of the person who
had been honoured for more than one generation by the confidence of
the Castelmare family. For the lawyer was a much older man than the
Marchese, and had been the confidential adviser of his father. And
old Giovacchino Fortini's father and grandfather had sat in the same
"studio" before him, and had held the same position towards previous
generations of the Castelmare family.

For three generations also the Fortini, grandfather, father, and
son, had been lawyers to the Chapter of Ravenna; a fact which
vouched the very high standing and consideration they held in the
city, and at the same time explained the circumstances under which