the lease of a house in Sloane Street, and furnish the rooms for her, and she is to earn her living by keeping lodgers.  Now, if you really want to remain in London, Nina, don’t you think that might be a comfortable home for you?  She is a very nice, ladylike little woman; and she’s a great friend of mine, too; she would do everything she could for you.  There’s a chaperon for you ready-made!—­for I’m afraid she has only one lodger to look after as yet, though she has all the necessary servants, and the establishment is quite complete.  What do you say to that, Nina?”

Her face had brightened up wonderfully at this proposal.

“Yes, yes, yes, Leo!” she said, instantly.  “Tell me how I go, and I go at once, to ask her if she can give me apartments.”

He glanced at his watch.

“The fact is,” said he, slowly, “I was to have lunched with a very small party to-day—­at a duchess’s house—­at a duchess’s house, think of that, Nina!”

She jumped to her feet at once, and frankly held out her hand.

“Forgive me, Leo!—­I retard you—­I did not know.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry, Nina,” he said, as he also rose.  “I’m going to break the appointment, that’s all about it; Signorina Antonia Rossi doesn’t arrive in England every day.  I’ll tell you what we have got to do:  we will get into a hansom and drive to a telegraph-office, and I’ll get rid of that engagement; then we’ll go on to the Restaurant Gianuzzi, and you and I will have a little luncheon by ourselves, just to prepare us for the fatigues of the day; then you will get your things ready, and I will take you down to Mrs. Grey’s in Sloane Street, and introduce you to that most estimable little lady; and then, if Mrs. Grey happens to be disengaged for the evening, she might be induced to come with you to the New Theatre, and she could take you safe home after the performance.  How will that do, Nina?”

“You always were kind to me, Leo,” she said—­though the gratitude plainly shining in the gentle, dark eyes rendered the words quite unnecessary.

And indeed she was delighted, with a sort of childish delight, to sit in this swift hansom, bowling along the smooth thoroughfare; and she chatted and chattered in her gay, rapid, disconnected fashion; and she had nothing but contempt for the shabby Neapolitan fiacre and the jolting streets that Leo of course remembered; and when at last she found herself and her companion of old days seated at a small, clean, bright window-table in the Restaurant Gianuzzi—­they being the only occupants of the long saloon—­she fairly clapped her little hands together in her gladness.  And then how pretty she looked!  She had removed her bonnet; and the light from the window, falling on the magnificent masses of her jet-black hair gave it almost a blue sheen in places; while here and there—­about the wax-like ear, for example, a tiny ringlet had got astray, and its soft darkness against the olive