day following my advent at night, and after breakfast drove straight to the Reclusorio, or Asylum for the Poor, situated here” (he indicated the institution), “close to the Botanical Gardens.  Mr. Capella arranged with the authorities to withdraw from the poorhouse an elderly woman named Maria Bresciano.  It subsequently transpired that she was a nurse employed by a certain English gentleman named Fraser Beechcroft, who became entangled with a beautiful Italian girl named Margarita di Orvieto some twenty-eight years ago.”

Mr. Holden paid not the remotest attention to the looks of amazement exchanged between Brett and Winter.  He merely paused to take breath and peer benignantly at the map, following lines thereon with the index finger of his right hand.

“It appears further,” he resumed, “that the Englishman and the Signorina di Orvieto could not marry, on account of some foolish religious scruples held by the young lady, but they entertained a very violent passion for each other, met clandestinely, and a female child was born, whose baptism is registered, under the name of Margarita di Orvieto, in the church of the village of La Scutillo here.” (He tapped a tiny spired edifice on the edge of the map.)

“The two were living there in great secrecy, as they were in fear of their lives, not alone from the young lady’s relatives, but from her discarded lover, the Marchese di Capella, father of the present Mr. Giovanni Capella, who has dropped his title in England.  The old woman, Maria Bresciano, attended the signorina and her child, but unfortunately the mother died, and her death is registered both by the civil authorities in the Minadoi section here” (lifting a small house bodily off the map), “and by the ecclesiastical here” (he touched another spire).

“The affair created some stir in the Naples of that day, but Beechcroft’s suffering, the calm daring with which, after the girl’s death, he defied those who had vowed vengeance on him, and the generally passionate nature of the attachment between the two, created much public sympathy for him.  Among others who were attracted to him were a Mr. and Mrs. Somers, and their daughter, then resident in Naples.  Oddly enough, Beechcroft did not content himself with securing efficient care for his child, but brought the infant to the Hotel de Londres—­you note the coincidence—­where it was nurtured under his personal supervision.”

Brett drew a long breath.  So this was Margaret’s secret and Capella’s vengeance!  He was aroused, as from a dream, by Mr. Holden’s steady voice.

“Mr. Beechcroft always held that the Signorina di Orvieto was his true wife in the eyes of Heaven, for their marriage was only prevented by a most uncalled-for and unnatural threat of incurring her father’s dying curse it she dared to wed a Protestant.  Eighteen months after her death he married Miss Somers at the British Consulate, and revealed his real name and rank—­Sir Alan Hume-Frazer, baronet,