CHAPTER VII A MESSAGE FROM ROME
Don Riccardo, from his secluded ground in the villa park, saw Tarsis’s car pass in the twilight, and guessed that the message to Rome was on its way. He thought the moment a good one, therefore, to take shelter indoors from the dewy air. Hera greeted him with a more cheerful countenance than he had seen her wear for many days, although she had made a brave effort to conceal her feelings. She told him what he already knew from the dialogue he had overheard a half-hour before. He made no concealment of his delight that Tarsis, after all, was not to be his son-in-law. Knowing that the blow was a heavy one for his sister, he went to her apartments to console her with some news he had heard that afternoon from his old friend Colonel Rosario, whose regiment of
