Malipieri was watched by the government, as Volterra had told him,
because it was feared in high quarters that if he found anything of
value under the palace, he would try to get it out of the country. He
had always hated the government and had got himself into trouble by
attacking the monarchy. Besides, it was known in high quarters that
Senator Baron Volterra held singular views about the authenticity of
works of art. It would be inconvenient to have a scandal in the Senate
about the Velasquez and the other pictures; on the other hand, if
anything more of the same sort should happen, it would be very
convenient indeed to catch a pair of culprits in the shape of
Malipieri, a pardoned political offender, and his ex-convict servant.
Then, too, in quite another direction, the Vatican was very anxious to
buy any really good work of art which might be discovered, and would
pay quite as much for it as the government itself. Therefore the
Vatican was profoundly interested in Malipieri on its own account.
As if this were not enough, Sabina's brother, the ruined Prince Conti,
had got wind of the excavations and scented some possible advantage to
himself, with the vague chance of more money to throw away on
automobiles, at Monte Carlo, and in the company of a cosmopolitan
young person of semi-Oriental extraction whose varied accomplishments
had made her the talk of Europe.
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