of disappointment breaks in upon his thoughts.  He cannot explain it, but he longs to be beyond the decisive hour.  In San Giacinto’s existence, the steps from obscurity to importance and fortune had, of late, been so rapidly ascended that he was almost giddy with success.  For the first time since he had left his old home in Aquila, he felt as though he had been changed from his own self to some other person.

At last the door opened, and Saracinesca, Giovanni, and Corona entered the room.  San Giacinto was surprised to see Giovanni’s wife on an occasion when the men alone of the family were concerned, but she explained that she had come to spend the morning with Faustina, and would wait till everything was finished.  The meeting was not a cordial one, though both parties regarded it as inevitable.  If Saracinesca felt any personal resentment against San Giacinto he knew that it was unreasonable and he had not the bad taste to show it.  He was silent, but courteous in his manner.  Giovanni, strange to say, seemed wholly indifferent to what was about to take place.

“I hope,” said San Giacinto, when all four were seated, “that you will consent to consider this as a mere formality.  I have said as much through my lawyers, but I wish to repeat it myself in better words than they used.”

“Pardon me,” answered Saracinesca, “if I suggest that we should not discuss that matter.  We are sensible of your generosity in making such offers, but we do not consider it possible to accept them.”

“I must ask your indulgence if I do not act upon your suggestion,” returned San Giacinto.  “Even if there is no discussion I cannot consent to proceed to business until I have explained what I mean.  If the suit has been settled justly by the courts, it has not been decided with perfect justice as regards its consequences.  I do not deny, and I understand that you do not expect me to act otherwise, that it has been my intention to secure for myself and for my children the property and the personal position abandoned by my ancestor.  I have obtained what I wanted and what was my right, and I have to thank you for the magnanimity you have displayed in not attempting to contest a claim against which you might have brought many arguments, if not much evidence.  The affair having been legally settled, it is for us to make whatever use of it seems better in our own eyes.  To deprive you of your name and of the house in which you were born and bred, would be to offer you an indignity such as I never contemplated.”

“You cannot be said to deprive us of what is not ours, by any interpretation of the word with which I am acquainted,” said Saracinesca in a tone which showed that he was determined to receive nothing.

“I am a poor grammarian,” answered San Giacinto gravely, and without the slightest affectation of humility.  “I was brought up a farmer, and was only an innkeeper until lately.  I cannot discuss with you the subtle meanings of words.  To my mind it is I who am taking from you that which, if not really yours, you have hitherto had every right to own and to make use of.  I do not attempt to explain my thought.  I only say that I will neither take your name nor live in your house while you are alive.  I propose a compromise which I hope you will be willing to accept.”