“Have you any idea?” asked the Princess, glancing down at the dirty little letter she still held.

“In the second place,” Malipieri continued, without heeding the question, “I am almost sure that when you were in difficulties, two or three months ago, he got the better of you, as he gets the better of every one.  With the value of these statues, he has probably pocketed a couple of million francs by the transaction.”

“The wretch!” exclaimed the Princess.  “I wish you were my lawyer!  You have such a clear way of putting things.”

Even then Malipieri smiled.

“I have always believed what I have just told you,” he answered.  “That was the reason why I hoped that Donna Sabina might yet recover what she should have had from the estate.  Volterra is sure that if you can take proper steps, you will recover a large sum, and that is why he is so anxious to marry his son to your daughter.  He thinks the match would settle the whole affair.”

“The idiot!  As if I did not need the money myself!”

Again Malipieri smiled.

“But you will not get it,” he answered.  “You will certainly not get it if Volterra is interested in the matter, for it will all go to your daughter.  Your other two children have had their share of their father’s estate, and that of the daughters should have amounted to at least two millions each.  But Donna Sabina has never had a penny.  Whatever is recovered from Volterra will go to her, not to you.”

“It would be the same thing,” observed the Princess carelessly.

“Not exactly,” Malipieri said, “for the court will appoint legal guardians, and the money will be paid to her intact when she comes of age.  In other words, if she marries Volterra’s son, the little fortune will return to Volterra’s family.  But of course, if you consented to the marriage, he would compromise for the money, before the suit was brought, by settling the two millions upon his daughter-in-law, and if he offered to do that, as he would, no respectable lawyer in the world would undertake to carry on the suit, because Volterra would have acted in strict justice.  Do you see?”

“Yes.  It is very disappointing, but I suppose you are right.”

“I know I am, except about the exact sum involved.  I am an architect by profession, I know something of Volterra’s affairs and I do not think I am very far wrong.  Very good.  But Volterra has accidentally got hold of a terrible weapon against you, in the shape of this blackmailer’s letter.”

“Then you advise me to accept his offer after all?”

“He knows that you must, unless you can find something better.  You are in his power.”

“But why should I, if I am to get nothing by it?” asked the Princess absent-mindedly.

“There is Donna Sabina’s good name at stake,” Malipieri answered, with a little sternness.

“I had forgotten.  Of course!  How stupid of me!” For a moment Malipieri knew that he should like to box her ears, woman though she was; then he felt a sort of pity for her, such as one feels for half-witted creatures that cannot help themselves nor control their instincts.