each other. I could see her
make up her mind, and I resolved therefore not to be embarrassed.

'But, signor,' she said, with more firmness than I had expected, 'the
tobacco and the coffee and the loaf?'

'Mademoiselle,' I said, 'the coffee and the tobacco and the loaf loom
dimly from the future. They will come in good time.'

But, oh, the little girl was brave and tender-hearted and honourable.
She was a little Englishwoman, with beliefs in duty. And yet she would
sooner have faced ten lions than me, with my Italian courtesy and my
uncomplaining good temper.

'Mrs. Hopkins,' she said, 'will lend me a--a shilling, and I----'

From that moment I respected her.

'Mademoiselle,' I answered, 'you are a lady, I am a gentleman. We have
both the misfortune to be poor. We have both the admirable good fortune
to be proud and honourable. You are brave and good, and your instincts
are delicate. You will permit me to ask you not to humiliate yourself.'

'But, signor,' she urged, 'it is very hard for you to go----'

'My good-hearted, dutiful little English lady,' I took the liberty to
say, for I was very much in earnest,' it is not at all hard for me to
go without the coffee and the tobacco and the loaf. Above all, I do not
lose my self-respect or touch my pride when I go without the coffee and
the tobacco and the loaf. And now, mademoiselle, since it is our scheme
to rout my lady enemy in the morning, we will despoil her of her
triumph now by not caring for her or it, and by snapping our fingers at
her--So.'

Whilst we had talked I had closed the door, and now I crossed over to my
picture and began to work again. She still lingered, watching me whilst
I painted.

'Are you fond of pictures?' I asked her, to divert her thoughts.

'I have not seen many, but I am very fond of some of them.'

'Would you like to look at those?' I said, pointing with my brush to a
portfolio on the piano.

She opened the portfolio and looked through my sketches. I saw with
pleasure that she did not race over them, but that she stopped and
looked long at some. I could see from where I stood that they were the
best, and I said, 'The young lady has taste and discernment.'

Suddenly she clapped her two hands together, and said--

'Oh!'

Then she came to me with a sketch in her hands, and her face was
beautiful.

'Did you paint this, signor?'

'Yes, mademoiselle, I painted that. Why do you ask?'

'Poor old place!' she said very softly, w