The House of Whispers

, her hand pressed to her breast in a strenuous endeavour to calm herself. She feared that her father might detect her agitation, for he was so quick in discovering in her the sligh

tionless with his back to her, was busy with his fi

to the lips, with drawn brows, while about her mouth played a hard, bit

ly apparent. Nevertheless, he held her irresistibly within his toils. His clean-shaven face was a distinctly evil one. His eyes wer

tch any sound. Then, as though reassured, she pushed the chestnut hair from her hot, fevered brow,

s he detected her presence. "I hoped you would not leave me for long, fo

ere just about to look at those seals Professor Moyes sent you to-day, weren't we? Here they are;" and she placed them before the he

erfully. "Let us s

th mitre and crosier, in the act of giving his blessing. Behind him were three circular towers with

BATIS . SANTI . AM

st. Then, having also examined the battered old bronze matrix, he said, "A most excellent specimen

girl, seated in the chair at his side and as int

ithout hesitation. "Genuine, quite genuine, no doubt. The matrix show

hat thick green corrosion which

ised portion at the back is pi

on, it is the seal of the Abbot Benedict of the Monastery of St. Ambrose, of Rancia, in Lombardy. Let me think, now. We should find

nd upon all his most cherished volumes, and woe beti

n the great leather-bound quarto book, which she carr

Benedict was third abbot, from 1218 to 1231. The church still exists. The magnificent pulpit in marble, embellished with mosaics, presented in 1272, rests on six columns supported by lions, with an inscription: "Nicolaus de Montava marmorarius hoc opus fecit." Opposite it is the ambo (1272), in a simple st

e old bronze seal in his hand, "belonged to the

under the green-shaded reading-lamp. "The study of seals is most interesting. It carries one back

old Baronet. "He is well aware what

first authorities in the world upo

his eyes once again; for, after all, the sense of

f-length figure of a saint holding a closed book in his hand, and below was a youth with long hands in the act of adoration. Be

ICHI . PLEBANI

re, now and then turning to the matrix in order to satisfy himself, "I should place it as having been executed about 1350. But it is really a very beautiful specimen, done at a time when the art of seal-engraving was at its

nslating from the Italian the brief notice of the ancient church of Dulcigno, which, it appeared, had been built in

with Child, seated, a male and female figure on either side. Below were three female figures on either side, the two scenes being divided

ERALIS . ORDINIS . BEATA .

should place at about 1150. Look well, dear, at those flower garlands; how beautifully they are engraved! Seal-making is, alas! to-day a lost art. We have only crude and heavy attempts. The company seal seems to-day

ies, so that after his long tuition she could decipher and read a twelfth-century Latin manuscript, on its scrap of yellow, crinkled parchment, and with all its puzzling abbreviations, almost as well as any professor of palaeography at the universities, while inscriptions upon Gothic seals were to her as plain as a paragraph in a newspaper. More t

them minutely and expressed opinions. Now and then she glanced apprehensively to that open window. He pointed out to her where she was wrong

d came in, fanning the curtains and carrying w

ng in a deep breath. "The night is very close,

o," explained the girl. "Shall I put

doubt intends that

she opened one, displaying a tray full of casts of seals, each neatly arranged, wi

mediaeval seals are rarities, and seldom found anywhere save in the chief public m

ocked the cabinet, and then took up a bundle of business

became filled with a vague suspicion that the source of his great income was not altogether an open and honest one. The papers and letters she read to him often contained veiled information which sorely

of some of those private papers kept locked in the cavity beyond the black steel do

n from the safe by Sir Henry himself