feather-brained fellow Calabressa who has got you to intercede
for him? Rest assured. Calabressa will soon be in imminent peril of
being laid by the heels, and he is therefore supremely happy."

Before the girl could speak he had turned to the mother.

"Come, my old friend, shall we go out into the garden? I am sorry the
reception-rooms in the villa are all dismantled; in truth, we are only
temporary lodgers. And I have a great many questions to ask you about
old friends, particularly your father."

"Stefan, can you not understand why I have permitted myself to leave
Hungary?"

He glanced at her deep mourning.

"Ah, is that so? Well, no one ever lived a braver life. And how he kept
up the old Hungarian traditions!--the house a hotel from month's end to
month's end: no questions asked but 'Are you a stranger? then my house
is yours.'"

He led the way down the stairs, chatting to this old friend of his; and
though Natalie was burning with impatience, she forced herself to be
silent. Was it not all in her favor that this member of the mysterious
Council should recur to these former days, and remind himself of his
intimacy with her family? She followed them in silence: he seemed to
have forgotten her existence.

They passed through the court-yard, and down some broad steps. The true
front of the building was on this seaward side--a huge mass of pink,
with green casements. From the broad stone steps a series of terraces,
prettily laid out, descended to a lawn; but, instead of passing down
that way, the tall, soldierly-looking man led his companion by a
side-flight of steps, which enabled them to enter an _allee_ cut through
a mass of olives and orange and lemon trees. There were fig-trees along
the wall by the side of this path; a fountain plashed coolly out there
on the lawn, and beyond the opening showed the deep blue of the sea,
with the clear waves breaking whitely on the shores.

They sat down on a garden-seat; and Natalie, sitting next her mother,
waited patiently and breathlessly, scarcely hearing all this talk about
old companions and friends.

At last the general said,

"Now about the business that brought you here: is it serious?"

"Oh yes, very," the mother said, with some color of excitement appearing
in her worn face; "it is a friend of ours in England: he has been
charged by the Society with some duty that will cost him his life; we
have come to intercede for him--to ask you to save him. For the s