"Something very unpleasant has occurred," he answered, looking at Faustina. "Meschini, the librarian, has just died very suddenly in the study where we were."
"Meschini?" cried Faustina in surprise and with some anxiety.
"Yes. Are you nervous, Donna Faustina? May I tell you something very startling?" It was a man's question.
"Yes—what is it?" she asked quickly.
"Meschini confessed before us all that it was he who was the cause—in fact that he had murdered your father. Before any one could stop him, he had shot himself. It is very dreadful."
With a low cry that was more expressive of amazement than of horror, Faustina sank into a chair. In his anxiety to tell his wife the whole truth Giovanni forgot her at once. As soon as he began to speak, however, Corona led him away to the window where they had stood together a few hours earlier.
"Corona—what I told her is not all. There is something else. Meschini had forged the papers which gave the property to San Giacinto. Montevarchi had promised him twenty thousand scudi for the job. It was because he would not pay the money that Meschini killed him. Do you understand?"
"You will have everything after all?"
"Everything—but we must give San Giacinto a share. He has behaved like a hero. He found it all out and made Meschini confess. When he knew the truth he did not move a muscle of his face, but offered my father the deed he had just signed as a memento of the occasion."
"Then he will not take anything, any more than you would, or your father. Is it quite sure, Giovanni? Is there no possible mistake?"