“Society of Rome will be sorry to learn that the Duke Scorpa is seriously ill at his Palazzo.  The doctor’s bulletins announce that their illustrious patient is suffering from a malignant case of fever which at the best will mean an illness of many weeks.”

But it was not until the next day that there was a paragraph to the effect that the Marchese di Valdo had met with an accident.  A passer-by had seen him slip in front of his club, the Circolo d’Acacia.  It seems the wind carried his hat off suddenly, and, as he put his hand out to catch it, he fell and broke his arm.  Following this came several other social items, and then the second day’s bulletin about the Duke Scorpa, saying that the gravity of his condition remained unchanged.

Nina quite refused to be moved to pity by the news of Scorpa’s critical state.  Her only anxiety in connection with him was, what would they do to Giovanni, in case Scorpa should die?  For how was Giovanni to be got out of the country, when he was said to be delirious in bed!  By day she thought, and by night she dreamed, that they were going to cut off his arm.

As the excitement was dying down, John Derby returned from Sicily.  He noticed that Nina looked nervous and ill, but she tried to convince him that it was the result of late hours and dancing.  Besides, he had no opportunity of talking to her alone, for in consequence of his success, all who were interested in Sicily or mines flocked to the Palazzo Sansevero as soon as it became known that Derby was there.  The fuss made over him pleased him, of course; for, after all, he was quite human and quite young, and there was great exhilaration in being the bearer of good news.  He would not promise any definite amount to the holders of the “Little Devil.”  There would be some money, but that was all he could say.  He did not yet know how much.  To Nina’s delight, he actually got Carpazzi to accept the position of Tiggs, who had to return to America.  The plant, once started, no longer needed both engineers.  And Carpazzi’s tumble-down castle not far from Vencata, enabled him to go without hurt to his European ideas of dignity to “look after his own property.”

In spite of her explanations, John was very much worried about Nina.  She certainly was not herself.  Several times he caught a half-appealing look in her eyes, as though she had something weighing on her mind.  Yet she gave him no chance to ask her confidence.  Finally he had the good luck to be left with her for a few moments alone, but there was a lack of frankness in her face that he had never seen there before, and she had an apprehensive, frightened manner that alarmed him.

The question he was almost ready to put, in spite of his resolution, remained unasked, and he said instead:  “Look here, Nina, I don’t think you are well!  You’re awfully jumpy.  I never saw you like this at home.  Has anything happened?”

Nina shook her head.