She had replied that she intended to employ only her own people, and meant to live very simply.

He suggested that she should send a quantity of new furniture, as the apartments in the castle had not been inhabited for nearly twenty years, but Veronica answered that she needed no luxuries, and repeated that she meant to live very simply indeed.

She sent her saddle horse and two pairs of strong cobs with two country carriages and a coachman--a very young man, who had served in Gianluca's regiment and had been his man.

He was to find a man in Muro to help him in the stables, and he was the only servant, not a native, whom she meant to employ.

Don Teodoro had kept ten people at work for a month in cleaning the vast old place.