“What a pleasant evening you gave us yesterday! A couple of hours’ cheerful talk like that, at a well-chosen dinner, does me good. However happy I may be, our present position of financial anxiety sometimes depresses me, though I keep up my spirits for Duco’s sake. Money worries interfere with his work and impair his energy. So I discuss them with him as little as I can; and I particularly beg you not to let him into our little secret.
“Once more, my best and most sincere thanks.
“Cornélie de Retz.”
When she left the house that morning, she went straight to the Palazzo Ruspoli:
“Has his excellency gone?”
The porter bowed respectively and confidentially:
“An hour ago, signora. His excellency left a letter and a parcel for me to give you if you should call. Permit me to fetch them.”
He went away and soon returned; he handed Cornélie the parcel and the letter.
She walked down a side-street turning out of the Corso, opened the envelope and found a few bank-*notes and this letter:
“Most honoured Lady,