Mrs.Ferrari shrank from the bare idea of making any use of the thousand-pound note.

It had been deposited in the safe keeping of a bank.

If it was even mentioned in her hearing, she shuddered and referred to it, with melodramatic fervour, as 'my husband's blood-money!' So, under stress of circumstances, the attempt to solve the mystery of Ferrari's disappearance was suspended for a while.
It was the last month of the year 1860.

The commission of inquiry was already at work; having begun its investigations on December 6.

On the 10th, the term for which the late Lord Montbarry had hired the Venetian palace, expired.