im, you know."

"Yes; but what has he got to do with it?"

"Why, I'll get you to take me, and I'll go to him, and tell him all
about it, and about all these horrid men; and I'll ask him if he can't
do something or other to help me. They have dispensations and things,
you know, that the Pope gives; and I want him to let me dispense with
these awful people."

"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Willoughby.

"I don't see any nonsense in it at all. I'm in earnest," said Minnie;
"and I think it's a great shame."

"Nonsense!" said her sister again; "the only thing is for you to stay
in your room."

"But I don't want to stay in my room, and I can't."

"Oh dear! what can I do with this child?" exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby,
whose patience was giving way.

Upon this Minnie went over and kissed her, and begged to be forgiven;
and offered to do any thing that darling Kitty wanted her to do.

After this they talked a good deal over their difficulty, but without
being able to see their way out of it more clearly.

That evening they were walking up and down the balcony of the house.
It was a quadrangular edifice, and they had a suite of rooms on the
second and third stories. They were on the balcony of the third story,
which looked down into the court-yard below. A fountain was in the
middle of this, and the moon was shining brightly.

The ladies were standing looking down, when Minnie gently touched her
sister's arm, and whispered,

"Look at the man!"

"Where?"

"By the fountain."

Mrs. Willoughby looked, and saw the face of a man who was standing on
the other side of the fountain. His head rose above it, and his face
was turned toward them. He evidently did not know that he was seen,
but was watching the ladies, thinking that he himself was unobserved.
The moment that Mrs. Willoughby looked at the face she recognized it.

"Come in," said she to Minnie. And drawing her sister after her, she
went into the house.

"I knew the face; didn't you, Kitty dear?" said Minnie. "It's so easy
to tell it. It was Scone Dacres. But what in the world does he want?
Oh dear! I hope _he_ won't bother me."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE INTRUDER.

Judging from the Baron's own words, it will be perceived that his
comprehension of the situation was a little different from the actual
fact. His idea was that his last letter had been received by Minnie in
England, whereupon she had been seized with such an ungovernable
longing to see him that she at o