She is an attractive young woman, but is dressed in black and veiled in mourning. Weeping and occasionally sobbing “Papa, papa,” she clutches a silver locket and a lace handkerchief patently inadequate to its task. She is accompanied by Bice, her sober middle-aged maid.

Perhaps offered a friendly smile, or a fresh handkerchief, Miss Stagliani explains in excellent English that her father died suddenly of pneumonia at home in Venice while she was visiting relatives in Milan. He slipped into the canal, and never recovered. She has cut short her holiday and is returning. She shows them a portrait of Papa in her locket. Papa is a not-so-elderly gentleman; his name was Giovanni Stagliani. He taught Philosophy and Comparative Religion at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.