The Title Market | Page 5

her eyes. She courtesied,
then looked anxiously at the prince.
"Excellency would speak with me?" she asked, "has Excellency
decided?"
"Yes," the prince answered, "Pedro will wed thee at the house of the
good father--to-night at eight." At his first words she clasped her hands
in thanksgiving, but when he continued that she was to wear no veil or
wreath, her joy gave way to a wail.
"Excellency would shame me," she sobbed, "I am a good girl and Pedro
my husband by promise."
Sansevero looked helpless for a moment and then seemed wavering.
The woman caught at the opportunity and repeated her cry, this time to
the princess, but there was no indecision in the latter's manner as she
spoke now in her husband's stead.
"Thou knowest, Marcella, that the veil and the wreath are only for such
as are maidens! Say no more, I speak not of goodness, Pedro comes to

the house of the padre--at eight. Be a faithful wife and mother, and so
shalt thou have honor--better than by the wearing of a wreath."
She put her hand on the girl's head, with a kindness that took away all
sting from her words. And Marcella made no further protest, although
as the pony-cart drove on, she remained weeping before the door.
Sansevero himself looked dejected. "Don't you think, dear one," he
protested, "that you were rather severe! What difference can it make
after all, whether the poor girl wears a few leaves in her hair or a bit of
tulle?"
But the princess was inflexible. "It would not be just to the others," she
answered, "since we made this rule there has been a great difference in
the village. It is almost rare now that the family arrives before the
wedding. The question of irregularity never used trouble the girls at all.
The only disgrace they seem able to feel is that they may not dress as
brides; and that being the case, I think we have to be strict."
"All right, wise one," said the prince as he drew up at the post-office, "I
am sure you know best." He looked at her with such obvious
satisfaction that two urchins standing by the road-side grinned. The
post-master hurried out with the mail, and the princess looked through
the letters. One with an American stamp held her attention. As she read,
her cheeks flushed with pleasure, her eyes grew bright, a sweet and
tender expression came into her face.
"Nina is coming!" she cried. Gladness rang in her voice. "Coming for
the whole winter--let me see, the letter is dated the fifteenth--she will
sail this week. Oh, Sandro, I am so happy!"
For a moment it would have been hard to say which looked more
pleased, the prince or the princess. But then, as though by thought
transference, in blank consternation each stared at the other, and
exclaimed in the same breath, "But how about Rome?"
In silence the prince turned the pony about and slowly they drove back
up the hills.

CHAPTER II
THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS
When the pony-cart arrived at the castle the princess alighted, too
preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice that her husband drove off
in the opposite direction from the stables. Her forehead was wrinkled
and her head bent as she walked between the high hedges of ilex
toward the south wing of the building. Her worry over their inability to
pay the debt was increased by the fact that their creditor was the Duke
Scorpa.
There had been a feud between the Sanseveros and the Scorpas for over
a century, and while the present generation tried to ignore it, the
princess felt instinctively that like the people of Alsace Lorraine, who
never really forgave the government that changed their nationality, the
Scorpas never forgave the Sanseveros for lands which they claimed
were unjustly lost in 1803, when a daughter of the house married a
Sansevero and took a portion of the Scorpa property as her dowry. That
these same lands were distant from either county seat, and of
comparatively small value, in no way mitigated the Scorpa resentment,
and every time they looked at the map and saw the triangular piece
painted over from the Scorpa red to the Sansevero blue, there was bad
feeling.
When the old Prince Sansevero was alive, he and the present Duke,
who was then a violent tempered youth, had several unfriendly
encounters about the boundary line of this same property. All this had
seemed very trivial to Alessandro, the present Prince, who looked upon
the Duke as one of his best friends--but Alessandro had no perspicacity.
He believed others to be as free from guile as himself.
Reaching a small postern gate at the end of the path, the princess