and the monotonous trickling of the fountain in the court below sounded more distinct as the street noises subsided.  She was growing a little anxious, when she heard soft footfalls on the stairs, which she at once recognized and hastened to meet.  “O, you have been gone so long!” she exclaimed.  Happy, as all human beings are, to have another heart so dependent on them, the gratified lady passed her arm round the waist of the loving child, and they ascended to their rooms like two confidential school-girls.

After tea, Mrs. Delano said, “Now I will keep my promise of telling you all I have discovered.”  Flora ran to an ottoman by her side, and, leaning on her lap, looked up eagerly into her face.  “You must try not to be excitable, my dear,” said her friend; “for I have some unpleasant news to tell you.”

The expressive eyes, that were gazing wistfully into hers while she spoke, at once assumed that startled, melancholy look, strangely in contrast with their laughing shape.  Her friend was so much affected by it that she hardly knew how to proceed with her painful task.  At last Flora murmured, “Is she dead?”

“I have heard no such tidings, darling,” she replied.  “But Mr. Fitzgerald has married a Boston lady, and they were the visitors who came here this morning.”

Flora sprung up and pressed her hand on her heart, as if a sharp arrow had hit her.  But she immediately sank on the ottoman again, and said in tones of suppressed agitation:  “Then he has left poor Rosa.  How miserable she must be!  She loved him so!  O, how wrong it was for me to run away and leave her!  And only to think how I have been enjoying myself, when she was there all alone, with her heart breaking!  Can’t we go to-morrow to look for her, dear Mamita?”

“In three days a vessel will sail for Marseilles,” replied Mrs. Delano.  “Our passage is taken; and Mr. and Mrs. Percival, who intended to return home soon, are kind enough to say they will go with us.  I wish they could accompany us to the South; but he is so well known as an Abolitionist that his presence would probably cause unpleasant interruptions and delays, and perhaps endanger his life.”

Flora seized her hand and kissed it, while tears were dropping fast upon it.  And at every turn of the conversation, she kept repeating, “How wrong it was for me to run away and leave her!”

“No, my child,” replied Mrs. Delano, “you did right in coming to me.  If you had stayed there, you would have made both her and yourself miserable, beside doing what was very wrong.  I met Mr. Fitzgerald once on horseback, while I was visiting at Mr. Welby’s plantation; but I never fairly saw him until to-day.  He is so very handsome, that, when I looked at him, I could not but think it rather remarkable he did not gain a bad power over you by his insinuating flattery, when you were so very young and inexperienced.”