e anything that took place in the
apartment.

The mere mention of such a circumstance would be trivial in the extreme,
were it not necessary to record it in consequence of an event which now
occurred.

For, as Flora advanced into the room, her eyes fell on a written paper
that lay immediately beneath the arm-chair; and conceiving from its
appearance that it had not been thrown down on purpose, as it was in
nowise crushed nor torn, she mechanically picked it up and placed it on
the table.

She then proceeded to arrange the toilet table of her mistress,
preparatory to that lady's rising; and while she is thus employed, we
will endeavor to make our readers a little better acquainted with her
than they can possibly yet be.

Flora Francatelli was the orphan daughter of parents who had suddenly
been reduced from a state of affluence to a condition of extreme
poverty. Signor Francatelli could not survive this blow: he died of a
broken heart; and his wife shortly afterward followed him to the
tomb--also the victim of grief. They left two children behind them:
Flora, who was then an infant, and a little boy, named Alessandro, who
was five years old. The orphans were entirely dependent upon the
kindness of a maiden aunt--their departed father's sister. This
relative, whose name was, of course, also Francatelli, performed a
mother's part toward the children: and deprived herself, not only of
comforts, but at times even of necessaries, in order that they should
not want. Father Marco, a priest belonging to one of the numerous
monasteries of Florence, and who was a worthy man, took compassion upon
this little family; and not only devoted his attention to teach the
orphans to read and write--great accomplishments among the middle
classes in those days--but also procured from a fund at the disposal of
his abbot, certain pecuniary assistance for the aunt.

The care which this good relative took of the orphans, and the kindness
of Father Marco, were well rewarded by the veneration and attachment
which Alessandro and Flora manifested toward them. When Alessandro had
numbered eighteen summers, he was fortunate enough to procure, through
the interest of Father Marco, the situation of secretary to a Florentine
noble, who was charged with a diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Porte;
and the young man proceeded to Leghorn, whence he embarked for
Constantinople, attended by the prayers, blessings, and hopes of the
aunt and sister, and of