e fierce jealousy of her undisciplined nature began
to assert itself.

"She could not endure to see her husband talk to another woman, or
hear him praise one even in the most moderate terms. A mere trifle
would provoke her, and then long and painful were the scenes that
ensued.

"She loved him passionately; she loved him as only an Italian can
love; and she made his life so bitter to him that he yielded it up
almost thankfully at last. He had been very patient with her, and when
he was dying, he put his hands upon her dark hair in his tender way:

"'We have not been happy together, dear,' he said, 'but I do not think
it has been my fault. I loved you always, but it was hard to make you
believe it; be good to our child, Bianca, for my sake.' And then, as
she knelt beside him in speechless anguish and remorse, he called his
little Crystal to him and kissed and blessed me, and while he was
still holding my hand a sudden spasm crossed his face and he put his
head down upon her shoulder, and in another moment he was gone.

"My poor mother, she did not long survive him.

"As soon as the news of my father's death reached England, Uncle Rolf
wrote at once offering a home to his only brother's widow and child.

"It was my father's desire, she knew, that she should live under the
protection of his relatives, so she obeyed his wishes at once. She did
not hesitate for a moment, though she felt she was a dying woman, and
it broke her heart to leave her husband's grave. She would bring her
child to England and place her safely in Colonel Ferrers's care, and
then she could go with an easy conscience to rejoin her beloved.

"How well I remember that journey; every detail was stamped upon my
childish recollection.

"Alas! she never lived to reach England. She was taken very ill in
Paris, and after a few days of intense suffering, she passed
peacefully away.

"A kind-hearted American widow and her daughter, with whom my father
had a slight acquaintance in Florence, had traveled with us and were
at the same hotel, and nothing could exceed their goodness to my poor
mother.

"They nursed her most tenderly, and were with her when she died, and
Mrs. Stanforth promised my mother most faithfully that they would
watch over me until they had seen me safe under Colonel Ferrers's
care.

"Every one was kind to me. I remember once when I was sitting in a
corner of the saloon with Minnie Stanforth, I heard people talking
softly of the b