the science of book-keeping in a short time, and had forced himself to an accuracy of detail and a promptness of ready reference which would have surprised many an old professional clerk.  It must be remembered that from the first he had found little else to do.  The technical work had always been in Contini’s hands, and Del Ferice’s forethought had relieved them both from the necessity of entering upon financial negotiations requiring time, diplomatic tact and skill of a higher order.  The consequence was that Orsino had devoted the whole of his great energy and native talent for order to the keeping of the books, with the result that when a contract had been executed there was hardly any accountant’s work to be done.  Nominally, too, Andrea Contini and Company were not responsible to any one for their book-keeping; but in practice, and under pretence of rendering valuable service, Del Ferice sent an auditor from time to time to look into the state of affairs, a proceeding which Contini bitterly resented while Orsino expressed himself perfectly indifferent to the interference, on the ground that there was nothing to conceal.  Had the books been badly kept, the final winding up of each contract would have been retarded for one or more weeks.  But the more deeply Orsino became involved, the more keenly he felt the value and, at last, the vital importance, of the most minute accuracy.  If worse came to worst and he should be obliged to fail, through Del Ferice’s sudden death or from any other cause, his reputation as an honourable man might depend upon this very accuracy of detail, by which he would be able to prove that in the midst of great undertakings, and while very large sums of money were passing daily through his hands, he had never received even the very smallest share of the profits absorbed by the bank.  He even kept a private account of his own expenditure on the allowance he received from his father, in order that, if called upon, he might be able to prove how large a part of that allowance he regularly paid to poor Contini as compensation for the unhappy position in which the latter found himself.  If bankruptcy awaited him, his failure would, if the facts were properly made known, reckon as one of the most honourable on record, though he was pleased to look upon such a contingency as a certain source of scandal and more than possible disgrace.

Unconsciously his own determined industry in book-keeping gave him a little more confidence.  In his great anxiety he was spared the terrible uncertainty felt by a man who does not precisely know his own financial position at a given critical moment.  His studiously acquired outward calm also stood him in good stead.  Even San Giacinto who knew the financial world as few men knew it watched his youthful cousin with curiosity and not without a certain sympathy and a very little admiration.  The young man’s face was growing stern and thoughtful like his own, lean, grave and strong.  San Giacinto remembered that night a