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CHAPTER IX.
The next morning they brought her a note; it said that he had inquired about the San Cipriano, but the matter had to be referred to some authority absent in Rome, and there could be no answer for a few days, perhaps weeks; the note was signed with the assurance of the highest consideration of the humblest of her servants,—Paolo della Rocca.
The note might have been read from the housetop: she had had letters from him of a different strain; charming little brief letters, about a flower, about an opera-box, about a piece of pottery, always about some trifle, but making the
