CHAPTER I.
Andrea Sperelli dined regularly every Wednesday with his cousin the Marchesa d'Ateleta.
The salons of the Marchesa in the Palazzo Roccagiovine were much frequented.

She attracted specially by her sparkling wit and gaiety and her inextinguishable good humour.

Her charming and expressive face recalled certain feminine profiles of the younger Moreau and in the vignettes of Gravelot.

There was something Pompadouresque in her manner, her tastes, her style of dress, which she no doubt heightened purposely, tempted by her really striking resemblance to the favourite of Louis XV.
One Tuesday evening, in a box at the Valle Theatre, she said laughingly to her cousin, 'Be sure, you come to-morrow, Andrea.

Among the guests there will be an interesting, not to say _fatal_, personage.