“I am ready to go; I am ready to start this afternoon, as I say,” Evelyn repeated; but then he added, with some hesitation:  “But I am not going to play the part of a hypocrite, Brand.  I could not pretend to sympathize with her, if that is the cause of her trouble; I should tell her it served her father right.”

“You could not be so brutal if you tried, Evelyn,” Brand said; “you might think so:  you could not tell her so.  But I have no fear:  you will be discreet enough, and delicate enough, when you see her.”

“And what am I to say from you?”

“From me?” he said.  “Oh, you can say I thank her for having saved my life.  That will be enough, I think; she will understand the rest.”

“I mean, what do you advise her to do?  Ought they to return to England?”

“I think so, certainly.  Most likely she will be waiting there, trying to get the Council to reverse the sentence.  Having been successful in the one case, the poor child may think she ought to succeed in the other.  I fear that is too much to expect.  However, if she is anxious, she may try.  I should like to know there was somebody near her she could rely on—­don’t you understand, Evelyn?—­to see that she is situated and treated as you would like one of your own sisters to be.”

“I see what it is, Brand,” Lord Evelyn said, laughing, “you are jealous of the foreigners.  You think they will be using tooth-picks in her presence, and that kind of thing.”

“I wish to know that she and her mother are in a good hotel,” said Brand, simply, “with proper rooms, and attendance, and—­and a carriage:  women can’t go walking through these beastly streets of Naples.  The long and short of it is, Evelyn,” he added, with some embarrassment, as he took out from his pocket-book two blank checks, and sat down at the table and signed them, “I want you to play the part of big brother to them, don’t you know?  And you will have to exercise skill as well as force.  Don’t you see, Calabressa is the best of fellows; but he would think nothing of taking them to stay in some vile restaurant, if the proprietor were politically inclined—­”

“Yes, yes; I see:  garlic; cigarettes during breakfast, right opposite the ladies; wine-glasses used as finger-glasses:  well, you are a thorough Englishman, Brand!”

“I suppose, when your sisters go abroad, you see that they are directed to a proper hotel?” said Brand, somewhat angrily.

“I know this,” said Evelyn, laughing, “that my sisters, and you, and Calabressa, and myself, all boiled together, wouldn’t make half as good a traveller as Natalie Lind is.  Don’t you believe she has been led away into any slummy place, for the sake of politics or anything else.  I will bet she knows the best hotels in Naples as well as you do the Waldegrave Club.”

“At any rate, you’ve got to play the big brother, Evelyn; and it is my affair, of course:  I will not allow you to be out of pocket by it.  Here are two checks; you can fill them in over there when you see how matters stand:  ——­, at Rome, will cash them.”