ick, without rising from his chair.

A female entered. She was dressed in black. A thick veil hid her
features, but her bent figure denoted age and weariness. She slowly
closed the door.

"Is it here where a young American lives with this name?"

She held out a card. It was his name, his card. He had only given it
to one person in Rome, and that one was Pepita.

"Oh!" cried Dick, rising, his whole expression changing from sadness
to eager and beseeching hope, "oh, if you know where she is--where I
may find her--"

The female raised her form, then with a hand that trembled
excessively she slowly lifted her veil. It was a face not old and
wrinkled but young and lovely, with tearful eyes downcast, and
cheeks suffused with blushes.

With an eager cry Dick bounded from his chair and caught her in
his arms. Not a word was spoken. He held her in a strong embrace as
though he would not let her go. At last he drew her to a seat beside
him, still holding her in his arms.

"I could not stay away. I led you into misfortune. Oh, how you
have suffered. You are thin and wan. What a wretch am I! When you see
me no more will you forgive me?"

"Forgive!" and Dick replied in a more emphatic way than words afford.

"They would not let me leave the house for ten days. They told me
if I ever dared to see you again they would kill you. So I knew you
were not dead. But I did not know how they had beaten you till one
day Ricardo told me all. To think of you unarmed fighting so
gallantly. Four of them were so bruised that they have not yet
recovered. To-day Luigi went to Civita Vecchia. He told me that
if I dared to go to Rome he would send me to a convent. But I
disobeyed him. I could not rest. I had to come and see how you
were, and to--bid--adieu--"

"Adieu! bid adieu?--never. I will not let you."

"Ah, now you talk wildly," said Pepita, mournfully, "for you know
we must part."

"We shall not part."

"I will have to go home, and you can not follow me."

"Oh, Pepita, I can not give you up. You shall be mine--now--my wife
--and come with me home--to America. And we shall never again have
to part."

"Impossible," said Pepita, as big tear-drops fell from her eyes.
"Impossible!"

"Why impossible?"

"Luigi would track us to the end of the world."

"Track us! I would like to see him try it!" cried Dick in a fury. "I
have an account to settle with him which will not be pleasant for
him to pay. Who is he to dare to stand betw