to do on a rainy day, I should never have
got into these scrapes."

"Oh! you will have enough to do some day managing your property. We who
have no property must find one in knowledge. Adieu, my dear Frank; I
must go home now. By the way, you have never, by chance, spoken of the
Riccaboccas to Madame di Negra?"

"The Riccaboccas? No. That's well thought of. It may interest her to
know that a relation of mine has married her countryman. Very odd that I
never did mention it; but, to say truth, I really do talk so little to
her; she is so superior, and I feel positively shy with her."

"Do me the favor, Frank," said Randal, waiting patiently till this reply
ended--for he was devising all the time what reason to give for his
request--"never to allude to the Riccaboccas either to her or to her
brother, to whom you are sure to be presented."

"Why not allude to them?"

Randal hesitated a moment. His invention was still at fault, and, for a
wonder, he thought it the best policy to go pretty near the truth.

"Why, I will tell you. The Marchesa conceals nothing from her brother,
and he is one of the few Italians who are in high favor with the
Austrian court."

"Well!"

"And I suspect that poor Dr. Riccabocca fled his country from some mad
experiment at revolution, and is still hiding from the Austrian police."

"But they can't hurt him here," said Frank, with an Englishman's dogged
inborn conviction of the sanctity of his native island. "I should like
to see an Austrian pretend to dictate to us whom to receive and whom to
reject."

"Hum--that's true and constitutional, no doubt; but Riccabocca may have
excellent reasons--and, to speak plainly, I know he has (perhaps as
affecting the safety of friends in Italy),--for preserving his
incognito, and we are bound to respect those reasons without inquiring
further."

"Still, I cannot think so meanly of Madame di Negra," persisted Frank
(shrewd here, though credulous elsewhere, and both from his sense of
honor), "as to suppose that she would descend to be a spy, and injure a
poor countryman of her own, who trusts to the same hospitality she
receives herself at our English hands. Oh, if I thought that, I could
not love her!" added Frank, with energy.

"Certainly you are right. But see in what a false position you would
place both her brother and herself. If they knew Riccabocca's secret,
and proclaimed it to the Austrian government, as you say, it would be
cruel and mean