ges. The horses were being led to water.
Around the carriages was a motley crowd, composed of the poor, the
maimed, the halt, the blind, forming that realm of beggars which from
immemorial ages has flourished in Italy. With these was intermingled a
crowd of ducks, geese, goats, pigs, and ill-looking, mangy, snarling
curs.

Upon these Mrs. Willoughby looked for some time, when at length her
ears were arrested by the roll of wheels down the street. A carriage
was approaching, in which there were two travelers. One hasty glance
sufficed, and she turned her attention once more to the ducks, geese,
goats, dogs, and beggars. In a few minutes the crowd was scattered by
the newly-arrived carriage. It stopped. A man jumped out. For a moment
he looked up, staring hard at the windows. That moment was enough.
Mrs. Willoughby had recognized him.

She rushed away from the windows. Lady Dalrymple and Ethel were in
this room, and Minnie in the one beyond. All were startled by Mrs.
Willoughby's exclamation, and still more by her looks.

"Oh!" she cried.

"What?" cried they. "What is it?"

"_He's_ there! _He's_ there!"

"Who? who?" they cried, in alarm.

"That horrid man!"

Lady Dalrymple and Ethel looked at one another in utter horror.

As for Minnie, she burst into the room, peeped out of the windows, saw
"that horrid man," then ran back, then sat down, then jumped up, and
then burst into a peal of the merriest laughter that ever was heard
from her.

"Oh, I'm _so_ glad! I'm _so_ glad!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it's so
_aw_fully funny. Oh, I'm _so_ glad! Oh, Kitty darling, don't, please
don't, look so cross. Oh, ple-e-e-e-e-e-e-ase don't, Kitty darling.
You make me laugh worse. It's so _aw_fully funny!"

But while Minnie laughed thus, the others looked at each other in
still greater consternation, and for some time there was not one of
them who knew what to say.

But Lady Dalrymple again threw herself in the gap.

"You need not feel at all nervous, my dears," said she, gravely. "I do
not think that this person can give us any trouble. He certainly can
not intrude upon us in these apartments, and on the highway, you know,
it will be quite as difficult for him to hold any communication with
us. So I really don't see any cause for alarm on your part, nor do I
see why dear Minnie should exhibit such delight."

These words brought comfort to Ethel and Mrs. Willoughby. They at once
perceived their truth. To force himself into th