CHAPTER VI A CENSORED DESPATCH
Though expectant of some shocking disclosure, and nerved for it, Donna Beatrice was not equal to an utter smash-up of all that she had planned and executed so satisfactorily to herself.
“Mario Forza!” she shrieked when the power to articulate was hers once more. “Oh, I knew it would be! From the first I saw the danger! We are ruined! To-morrow they will be here with their bills, a pack of hungry wolves. Hera! Wicked, heartless, cruel! Have you no mercy for me, for your father?”
In her violent agitation of mind, only half conscious of her words and acts, she moved into the corridor, beating her temples and wailing.
“Riccardo! Oh, my brother, where are you in this most terrible of moments?” she cried out with all the voice she could muster. “Calamity has
