Small wonder, then, was it that his thoughts this morning were bitter, when, after emptying his pockets, he realised that the absurdly inadequate sum of seven and elevenpence-halfpenny was all that was left him to exist on till the next quarterly payment of his income should fall due, which would not be till between a fortnight and three weeks hence.
He was still smoking moodily when he heard his landlady’s shuffling footsteps on the stairs, and, a moment later, her head was protruded into the room. “If you please, Captain, here’s a lady asking for you,” said Mrs. Rapp, a Londoner born and bred.
“A lady asking for me? Impossible!” exclaimed the Captain as he started to his feet.
“Not at all impossible, Uncle Augustus,” said a full rich voice, and thereupon, following close upon the heels of Mrs. Rapp, there advanced into the room a tall and stately female figure, attired in black. Pausing in the middle of the floor, she raised the veil which had hitherto partially shrouded her features.
The captain stared for a moment or two, and then from his lips broke the one word, “Giovanna!”
“Yes, it is I—your niece Giovanna—come all the way from Italy to see you.”
Mrs. Rapp discreetly withdrew.
Notwithstanding her years, which now numbered not far short of forty, Giovanna was still a very handsome woman, with a large and generous style of beauty which would have made her a striking figure anywhere. Although she called the Captain uncle, there was no blood relationship between the two, her mother having been merely Augustus Verinder’s stepsister by a previous marriage. They had never met but once before, when the Captain had spent a month at the osteria of Giuseppe Rispani, Giovanna being at that time a girl of sixteen. Ever since her desertion of her husband in America she had passed as a widow—la Signora Alessandro. She had not been without offers of marriage meanwhile, but had not seen her way to accept any of them. As to whether her husband was alive or dead, she had no knowledge.
Giuseppe Rispani had recently died, and Vanna, having realised the small fortune bequeathed her by him, had now come to England, which she had long wished to visit.
In the course of the confidential talk that ensued between Vanna and her uncle she was induced by the latter to relate to him all about her marriage, the details of which were quite new to him.