Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
SAN SALVADOR. 16mo, $1.25.
TWO CORONETS. A Novel. 12mo, $1.50;paper, 50 cents.
SAN SALVADOR
PROLOGUE.
Scene I.
The family in Palazzo Loredan, in the GrandCanal, Venice, had finished their midday breakfast,and coffee was brought in.
There was the Marchesa Loredan, a widow, herwidowed only daughter with a little son and histutor, and Don Claudio Loredan, the Marchesa’ssecond son. Her eldest son was married; and theyoungest, Don Enrico, was a monsignore, andcoadjutor of an old canon whom he was impatientlywaiting to succeed.
The breakfast had not been a cheerful one. DonClaudio, usually the life of the family and its harmonizingelement, had been silent and preoccupied;and Madama Loredan’s black brows had twodeep lines between them,—sure signs of a storm.
She rose as the coffee was bought in.
“Carry a tête-à-tête down to the arbor,” shesaid to the servant; and to her son, “I wish tospeak to you, Claudio.”
The tutor rose respectfully, making sly but intensesignals to his pupil to do the same. Butthe boy, occupied in counting the cloves of a mandarinorange, did not choose to see them.
A long window of the dining-room opened on a2balcony, and from the balcony a stair descended tothe garden. This garden, a squa