aps; wayward; and a trifle
wild I undoubtedly was; but crime and I were strangers, and strangers we
should have continued to be," he added somewhat wildly, "if I had but
listened to and heeded the warnings and pleadings of my sweet foster-
sister."

"_Your foster-sister_!" I ejaculated, a great light bursting in upon me
in a moment. "Was my mother your foster-sister?"

"Ay was she," replied Merlani. "Her mother died half an hour after
giving her birth; and my mother--who was at that time nursing my sister
Bianca, now dead, woe is me!--was summoned in all haste to the chateau
to take the place of a mother to the new-born infant. I was at that
time a youngster of seven years old, and as my mother became a permanent
inmate of the chateau for the first four years of your mother's life, I
saw a great deal of the dear child, and have played for hours with her
and my sweet Bianca on the sunny terrace in front of the chateau, ay,
and have dragged them in a little chariot, made by my father, many a
weary mile up and down the rough steep road leading to Amalfi."

"So, then, you and my mother were friends?" I remarked, in the hope of
leading him on to talk further upon the subject. "Friends!" ejaculated
Merlani; "well, yes, we were; but that expression is hardly the right
one. She was the guardian angel; I the poor, weak, erring mortal over
whom she watched. Always listening to her advice and admonitions with
the profoundest and most respectful attention, and always anxious to do
right, whilst I was in her presence, I had no sooner withdrawn myself
and mingled once more with my usual associates, than my natural weakness
prevailed, and I found myself involved in some scrape or other, from the
consequences of which your mother, with a patience more than mortal,
rescued me as often as she could. Had I but heeded her counsels I
should never have been what I now am."

"I can readily believe that," said I, "little as I know of my mother.
But do you intend me to accept that remark as _literally_ true, or--"

"It is literally true," answered Merlani. "You must know, senor, that
at the time to which I refer, like many more young men of my own age, I
became greatly interested in politics; so much so that after a time I
united myself to a secret society, the object of which was to compass
the freedom of our beloved Italy. I was on sufficiently intimate terms
with your mother to confide freely to her all my hopes and aspiration