ending to visit Italy before their return, will not probably
reach England for two or three months."

Within a few weeks after, a passage in the "Gazette" announced
that Viscount Lackington had been honored with the Bath, and named
Aide-de-camp to the Queen. It is not for poor chroniclers like ourselves
to obtrude upon good fortune like this, and destroy, by attempted
description, all that constitutes its real happiness. The impertinence
that presses itself in personal visits on those who seek seclusion is
only equalled by that which would endeavor to make history of moments
too sacred for recording.

Our story opened of a lovely morning in autumn,--it closes of an evening
in the same mellow season, and in the self-same spot, too, the Lake
of Como. Long motionless shadows stretched across the calm lake as,
many-colored, from the tints of the surrounding woods, it lay bathed
in the last rays of a rich sunset. It was the hour when, loaded with
perfume, the air moves languidly through the leaves and the grass, and
a sense of tender sadness seems to pervade nature. Was it to watch the
last changes of the rich coloring, as from a rose pink the mountain
summits grew a deep crimson, then faded again to violet, and, after a
few minutes of deepest blue, darkened into night, that a small group was
gathered silently on the lake terrace of the Villa d'Este? They were but
three,--a lady and two gentlemen. _She_, seated a little apart from the
others, appeared to watch the scene before her with intense interest,
bending down her head at moments as if to listen, and then resuming her
former attitude.

The younger of the men seemed to participate in her anxiety,--if such it
could be called,--and peered no less eagerly through the gathering gloom
that now spread over the lake. The elder, a short, thick-set figure,
displayed his impatience in many a hurried walk of a few paces, and a
glance, quick and short, over the water. None of them spoke a word. At
last the short man asked, in a gruff, coarse tone, "Are you quite sure
she said it was this evening they were to arrive?"

"Quite sure; she read the letter over for me. Besides, my sister
Georgina makes no mistakes of this kind, and she 'd not have moved off
to Lugano so suddenly if she was not convinced that they would be here
to-night."

"Well, I will say your grand folk have their own notions of gratitude as
they have of everything else. She owes these people the enjoyment of a
c