Yet proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that, in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long since begun to think—­first in fun and then more seriously—­of the palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded fly.  It was at the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.

The princess had, very much against Nina’s will, taken her to see the duchess on the day after their own dance.  But a serious indisposition had prevented the duchess from receiving—­not only on that particular day, but for the rest of the winter.  Toward the end of March, however, in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo Scorpa.

It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, “like a monster,” Nina said, “of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it.”

Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard.  Even the porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery, was austere and forbidding.  Within, the palace had been refurnished in the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted rooms was that of a prison.

One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her antipathy.  The Scorpas had belonged to the “Blacks,” that is to the ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but hung in tattered purple silk.  On one side stood a solitary piece of furniture—­a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above it hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy of red velvet.

“Was he a relation of the duke?” Nina whispered, aghast at the resemblance.

“Who, child?” asked the princess.

“Rodrigo Borgia.”

“No one knows.  Hush!”

“But why the throne?  Were the Scorpas kings—­or what?”

“Before the secular unification of Italy,” the princess answered, “the
Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals.  There has always been a
Scorpa among the cardinals.  The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati. 
Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family.”

Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI.  The sinister face was so like the present duke’s that it made her shudder, and her imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along these same stone floors.  At the end of ten or twelve rooms, each gloomy, yet over-rich with architectural adornments and modern elaboration, two lackeys lifted the hangings covering the last doorway, and announced: 

“Sua Eccellenza la Principessa Sansevero!”

“Messa Randolph.”