"What sort of a cloud ?" "Giovanni suddenly discovered that his father and mine were deadly enemies.

It was a cruel whim of Fate that brought us together.

Poor fellow! He was very fond of his father, and it seems that a legacy of revenge was bequeathed to him against an Englishman named Beechcroft.

I remembered, too late, that he once asked me how our house came to be so named, and I explained its English meaning to him.

I joked about it, and said the place should rightly be called Yewcroft.