EBOOK, THE HEART OF ROME ***
Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.
THE HEART OF ROME
A Tale of the "Lost water"
BY FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD
Author of "Cecilia," "Saracinesca," "In the Palace of the King," Etc.
THE HEART OF ROME
CHAPTER I
The Baroness Volterra drove to the Palazzo Conti in the heart of Rome
at nine o'clock in the morning, to be sure of finding Donna Clementina
at home. She had tried twice to telephone, on the previous afternoon,
but the central office had answered that "the communication was
interrupted." She was very anxious to see Clementina at once, in order
to get her support for a new and complicated charity. She only wanted
the name, and expected nothing else, for the Conti had very little
ready money, though they still lived as if they were rich. This did
not matter to their friends, but was a source of constant anxiety to
their creditors, and to the good Pompeo Sassi, the steward of the
ruined estate. He alone knew what the Conti owed, for none of them
knew much about it themselves, though he had done his best to make the
state of things clear to them.
The big porter of the palace was sweeping the pavement of the great
entrance, as the cab drove in. He wore his working clothes of grey
linen with silver buttons bearing the ancient arms of his masters, and
his third best gold-laced cap.
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