n all the tender care you
once bestowed upon me."

She knew not what to reply. Was she to tell him that the old green
chamber, with its little stair into the garden, was still at his
service? Was she to say, "Your old welcome awaits you there," or did she
dread his presence amongst them, and even fear what reception the girls
would extend to him?

"Not," added he, hastily, "that I am to inflict you with a sick man's
company again. I only beg for leave to come out of a morning when I feel
well enough. This inn here is very comfortable, and though I am glad to
see Onofrio does not recognise me, he will soon learn my ways enough to
suit me. Meanwhile, may I go back with you, or do you think you ought to
prepare them for the visit of so formidable a personage?"

"Oh, I think you may come at once," said she, laughingly, but very far
from feeling assured at the same time.

"All the better. I have some baubles here that I want to deposit in more
suitable hands than mine. You know that we irregulars had more looting
than our comrades, and I believe that I was more fortunate in this way
than many others." As he spoke, he hastily opened and shut again several
jewel-cases, but giving her time to glance-no more than glance--at the
glittering objects they contained. "By-the-way," said he, taking from
one of them a costly brooch of pearls, "this is the sort of thing they
fasten a shawl with," and he gallantly placed it in her shawl as he
spoke.

"Oh, my dear Colonel Calvert!"

"Pray do not call me colonel. I am Harry Calvert for you, just as I used
to be. Besides, I wish for nothing that may remind me of my late life
and all its terrible excitements. I am a soldier tired, very tired
of war's alarms, and very eager for peace in its best of all
significations. Shall we go?"

"By all means. I was only thinking that you must reconcile yourself not
to return to-night, and rough it how best you can at the villa."

"Let me once see my portmanteau in the corner of my old green room, and
my pipe where it used to hang beside my watch over the chimney, and
I'll not believe that I have passed the last two terrible years but in
a dream. You could not fancy how I attach myself to that spot, but I'll
give you a proof. I have given orders to my agent to buy the villa. Yes;
you'll wake some fine morning and find me to be your landlord."

It was thus they talked away, rambling from one theme to the other, till
they had gone a considerable w