Within a month of the abandoned wedding at Orton, Mary Morini and George
Macbean were married quietly at St James's Church, in Piccadilly, the
Rev Basil Sinclair assisting, and Billy Grenfell, as full of his bluff
humour as ever, acting as best man, while among the various handsome
presents the happy pair received was an acceptable cheque from Mr
Morgan-Mason for ten thousand pounds--the sum he had offered to George
for information as to the actual means by which his brother-in-law met
with his death.
The millionaire was determined to place the assassins on their trial,
and notwithstanding Morini's efforts to preserve secrecy regarding the
affair, he actually gave information to the Chief of Police in Mentone.
By some secret means, Angelo Borselli obtained knowledge of this fact,
and on the very morning of George's wedding day he was found in a room
in an obscure hotel in Brussels, quite dead, having committed suicide by
swallowing some arsenical poison, probably the same as that used in the
cognac which caused the unfortunate general's tragic end.
Felice Solaro was soon gazetted major, and is now transferred to the
gaiety of Naples. As for Dubard, he did not long enjoy his freedom, for
he was arrested as a traitor by the French police while passing through
Bordeaux, and is now spending the remainder of his days on the penal
island of New Caledonia.
George Macbean and his charming wife still live in Rome, and all in the
Eternal City know them well by sight. The Cavaliere Macbean has been
promoted to a very high and responsible position in the Ministry of War,
but last year Camillo Morini, owing to failing health, resigned office,
greatly to the regret of his new sovereign, King Victor Emmanuel, and of
the gallant Italian people at large.
But before resigning he endeavoured by every means in his power to atone
for the peculations of his earlier career, and by selling his palace and
other properties, he paid back the whole of the money he had
appropriated.
San Donato, the old-world estate above Florence, is, however, still his,
and there, enjoying the greatest fame perhaps of any living Italian, he
is spending with his wife the evening of his days.
Orton Court is still rented by him, and each summer they go there with
Mary and her husband. But the village is still mystified why Miss Mary
did not marry the Frenchman, and whether, after all, there was not a
scene on that memorable day when the wedding was so abruptly postponed.
But in her fine dark eyes they now see the light of perfect love and
sweet contentment, and they know too well the sterling worth and kindly
heart of the man who is her husband.
In Orton village in summer, however, perhaps the most popular and
important personage of any is the little round-faced, chubby boy, who so
often sits between the happy pair when on bright afternoons they drive
out in the smart victoria.
Much as she prefers England, Madame Macbean is compelled, on account of
her husband's official position, to still move in Roman society, where,
for her great personal beauty and the sweetness of her character, she is
the most admired of women in the Quirinale set, that bright and
brilliant circle of Italy's bluest blood--"The World behind the Throne."