room, rarely speaking, and then but in a whisper. At last
a servant whispered in Loyd's ear a message. He started and said, "Yes,
let him wait;" and then, in a moment after, added, "No, say no. I'll not
want the boat--the luggage may be taken back to my room."

It was a few minutes after this that Emily came behind him, and, bending
down so as to speak in his ear, said, "How I thank you, my dear brother,
for this! I know the price of your devotion--none of us will ever forget
it."

He made no answer, but pressed the cold damp hand he held to his lips.

"Does he know that it is nigh seven o'clock, Milly, and that he must
be at Como a quarter before eight, or he'll lose the train?" said Miss
Grainger to her niece.

"He knows it all, aunt; he has sent away the boat; he will not desert
us."

"Remember, child, what it is he is sacrificing. It may chance to be his
whole future fortune."

"He'll stay, let it cost what it may," said Emily.

"I declare I think I will speak to him. It is my duty to speak to him,"
said the old lady, in her own fussy, officious tone. "I will not expose
myself to the reproaches of his family--very just reproaches, too, if
they imagined we had detained him. He will lose, not only his passage
out to India, but, not impossibly, his appointment too.

"Joseph, Joseph, I have a word to say to you."

"Dearest aunt, I implore you not to say it," cried Emily.

"Nonsense, child. Is it for a mere tiff and a fit of hysterics a man
is to lose his livelihood? Joseph Loyd, come into the next room for a
moment."

"I cannot leave this," said he, in a low, faint voice: "say what you
have to say to me here."

"It is on the stroke of seven."

He nodded.

"The train leaves a quarter before eight, and if you don't start by this
one you can't reach Leghorn by Tuesday."

"I know it; I'm not going."

"Do you mean to give up your appointment?" asked she, in a voice of
almost scornful reproach.

"I mean, that I'll not go."

"What will your friends say to this?" said she, angrily.

"I have not thought, nor can I think, of that now: my place is here."

"Then I must protest; and I beg you to remember that I have protested
against this resolve on your part. Your family are not to say,
hereafter, that it was through any interference or influence of ours
that you took this unhappy determination. I'll write, this very day, to
your father and say so. There, it is striking seven now!"

He made no reply; ind