when he sees her."

"How fussy and important aunt is this morning!" said Florence, as the
old lady stepped into the boat. "If the interview were to be with the
Lord Chancellor instead of a London solicitor, she could not look more
profoundly impressed with its solemnity."

"She'll be dreadful when she comes back," said Emily, laughing; "so
full of all the law jargon that she couldn't understand, but will feel a
right to repeat, because she has paid for it."

It was thus they criticised her. Just as many aunts and uncles, and
some papas and mammas, too, are occasionally criticised by those younger
members of the family who are prone to be very caustic as to the mode
certain burdens are borne, the weight of which has never distressed
their own shoulders. And this, not from any deficiency of affection,
but simply through a habit which, in the levity of our day, has become
popular, and taught us to think little of the ties of parentage, and
call a father a Governor.

CHAPTER XX. AGAIN AT ORTA.

"THERE is a stranger arrived, Signora, who has been asking for you,"
said the landlord of the little inn at Orta, as Miss Grainger reached
the door. "He has ordered a boat, but feeling poorly, has lain down on
a bed till it is ready. This is his servant," and he pointed as he spoke
to a dark-visaged and very handsome man, who wore a turban of white and
gold, and who made a deep gesture of obeisance as she turned towards
him. Ere she had time to question him as to his knowledge of English,
a bell rung sharply, and the man hurried away to return very speedily,
and, at the same instant, a door opened and Calvert came towards her,
and, with an air of deep emotion, took her hand and pressed it to his
lips.

"This is too kind, far too kind and considerate of you," said he, as he
led her forward to a room.

"When I got your note," she began, in a voice a good deal shaken, for
there was much in the aspect of the man before her to move her, "I
really did not know what to do. If you desired to see me alone, it would
be impossible to do this at the villa, and so I bethought me that the
best way was to come over here at once."

"Do you find me much changed?" he asked, in a low, sad voice.

"Yes, I think you are a good deal changed. You are browner, and you look
larger, even taller, than you did, and perhaps the beard makes you seem
older."

This was all true, but not the whole truth, which, had she spoken it,
would have said