with them. Is that the state of affairs?"

Sassi nodded gravely. Then he looked keenly at the young man, and
asked him a question.

"May I enquire why you take an interest in Donna Sabina Conti?"

Malipieri returned the other's gaze quietly.

"I am an architect, called in by the Senator to superintend some work
on the palace. The Senator, as you know, took over the building when
he foreclosed the mortgage, and he has not yet sold it, though he has
refused several good offers. I have an idea that he believes it to be
very valuable property. If this should turn out to be true, and if he
should have made a very profitable transaction, he ought in honour, if
not in law, to make over a part of the profits to Donna Sabina, who
has practically been cheated of her share in her father's estate. Her
mother, and her brother and sister, spent everything they could lay
hands on, whereas she never had anything. Is that true?"

"Quite true, quite true," repeated Sassi sadly.

"And if Donna Sabina were to call them to account, I fancy the law
would take a rather unpleasant view of what they did. I have heard
that sort of thing called stealing when the persons who did it were
not princes and princesses, but plain people like you and me. Do you
happen to think of any better word?"

Sassi was silent. He had eaten the bread of the Conti all his life. He
glanced at the faded photograph of the Prince, as if to explain, and