he heard much of Isaura; of the kindness which Madame de Grantmesnil
had shown to her, when left by Selby's death alone in the world; of the
interest which the friendship and the warm eulogies of one so eminent as
the great French writer had created for Isaura in the artistic circles;
of the intense sensation her appearance, her voice, her universal
genius, had made in that society, and the brilliant hopes of her
subsequent career on the stage the cognoscenti had formed. No one knew
anything of her mother; no one entertained a doubt that Isaura was
by birth a Cicogna. Graham could not learn the present whereabouts of
Madame de Grantmesnil. She had long left Naples, and had been last heard
of at Genoa; was supposed to have returned to France a little before the
war. In France she had no fixed residence.

The simplest mode of obtaining authentic information whether Isaura
was the daughter of Ludovico Cicogna by his first wife--namely, by
registration of her birth--failed him; because, as von Rudesheim had
said, his first wife was a Frenchwoman. The children had been born
somewhere in France, no one could even guess where. No one had ever seen
the first wife, who had never appeared in Italy, nor had even heard what
was her maiden name.

Graham, meanwhile, was not aware that Isaura was still in the besieged
city, whether or not already married to Gustave Rameau; so large a
number of the women had quitted Paris before the siege began, that he
had reason to hope she was among them. He heard through an American that
the Morleys had gone to England before the Prussian investment; perhaps
Isaura had gone with them. He wrote to Mrs. Morley, inclosing his letter
to the Minister of the United States at the Court of St. James's, and
while still at Naples received her answer. It was short, and malignantly
bitter. "Both myself and Madame Savarin, backed by Signora Venosta,
earnestly entreated Mademoiselle Cicogna to quit Paris, to accompany us
to England. Her devotion to her affianced husband would not permit
her to listen to us. It is only an Englishman who could suppose Isaura
Cicogna to be one of those women who do not insist on sharing the perils
of those they love. You ask whether she was the daughter of Ludovico
Cicogna by his former marriage, or of his second wife by him. I cannot
answer. I don't even know whether Signor Cicogna ever had a former wife.
Isaura Cicogna never spoke to me of her parents. Permit me to ask--what
b