inding herself in the broad river sweeping toward
Florence, in her arrow-like boat. Of course she could turn at any time,
but not yet.

Something stopped the boat. A wild vine, hidden in the water, had seized
upon it, and swept it half around, then a current tossed it forward into
a sweeping whirl of waters. She was close by a vortex near the mouth of
the river, a ravenous little whirlpool that threatened to swallow her
up. The oars dropped from her hands; she seized the sides of her boat
and sat still, rigid as stone, white as death. Then a great arrow, or
what seemed to be one, shot through the water close by her, ploughing it
white with foam. Then a man leaped into her boat, pitching a pair of
oars in before him, and holding the cable of another boat in his hand.

He neither spoke nor looked at her, but twisting the cable around one
ankle, and setting the other foot upon it further up, seized his oars,
and for a minute or two battled like a tiger with the waters.

The boat rocked, wheeled slowly away from the awful danger, then plunged
forward with a shock that brought a sharp cry from Caroline's white
lips.

"Do not be afraid. The danger is over."

She turned her pallid face, and over it came a flash of recognition. It
was the man who had listened to her first lesson in Florence. He
recognized her, pale as she was, and slackened his oars--they were out
of danger now.

"Am I so fortunate? My pupil! This is a great happiness."

Caroline leaned forward and held out her trembling hands. Words of
gratitude were on her lips, but they only trembled there, without
utterance. He leaned over the little hands, as they came quivering
toward him, but could not touch them, his own being sufficiently
occupied with the oars.

"There is nothing to fear now sweet lady," he said, in Italian, which
never sounded so sweet to her before. "The danger is wholly past--but it
_was_ danger!"

Caroline shuddered; she almost felt those curling waters sweep over her.
The sensation was terrible.

"And you saved me?--you, whose face I have seen before so often, so
often. It seems like that of a friend."

"Once--only once. I wish it had been a thousand times, if that could
lessen your fright."

"Tell me how it was," said Caroline, beginning to recover herself. "I
cannot realize it."

"Nor I, sweet lady, it was all so sudden. I saw a boat whirling toward
that treacherous vortex, the flash of a blue mantle, the whiteness of an
uptur