From the picture my thoughts wandered to the hidalgo whom Angelo had represented as having purchased it, and with a view to learning something, however brief, about this grandee, I took down from the shelf a book on the Spanish peerage, and turned over its pages. I was still occupied thus when my uncle returned.
"Have you discovered anything?" was my first question.
"Absolutely nothing."
"Paolo had nothing to reveal?"
"Paolo was not there. I was in the cathedral square by eight, but could see nothing of him. I looked in at the cathedral, too. It was bright with lamps, being the eve of a festa; but he was not there; so, after two hours' patient watching and waiting, I gave it up in disgust."
"We are sure to see him at early Mass; his duties will take him there."
"Probably," replied my uncle, sinking into the armchair lately vacated by Daphne, and lighting a cigar. "But what ponderous tome are you poring over so studiously?"
"The Spanish Peerage."
"Ah! take St. Paul's advice, 'Beware of endless genealogies,' for they are dull reading."
"Not when one has a motive for studying them."