to serve her. May we then count upon your assistance in our
project?"

"That you may," said I. "From this hour I devote myself to it."

Crofton at once proposed that I should order my luggage to be placed on
his carriage, and start off with them; but I firmly opposed this plan.
First of all, I had no luggage, and had no fancy to confess as
much; secondly, I resolved to give at least one day for Vaterchen's
arrival,--I'd have given a month rather than come down to the dreary
thought of his being a knave, and Tintefleck a cheat! In fact, I
felt that if I were to begin any new project in life with so slack an
experience, that every step I took would be marked with distrust, and
tarnished with suspicion. I therefore pretended to Crofton that I had
given rendezvous to a friend at Lindau, and could not leave without
waiting for him. I am not very sure that he believed me, but he was most
careful in not dropping a word that might show incredulity; and once
more we addressed ourselves to the grand project before us.

"Come in, Mary!" cried he, suddenly rising from his chair, and going to
meet her. "Come in, and help us by your good counsel."

It was not possible to receive me with more kindness than she showed.
Had I been some old friend who came to meet them there by appointment,
her manner could not have been more courteous nor more easy; and when
she learned from her brother how warmly I had associated myself in this
plan, she gave me one of her pleasantest smiles, and said,--

"I was not mistaken in you."

With a great map of Europe before us on the table, we proceeded to plan
a future line of operations. We agreed to take certain places, each of
us, and to meet at certain others, to compare notes and report progress.
We scarcely permitted ourselves to feel any great confidence of success,
but we all concurred in the notion that some lucky hazard might do for
us more than all our best-devised schemes could accomplish; and, at
last, it was settled that, while they took Southern Germany and the
Tyrol, I should ramble about through Savoy and Upper Italy, and our
meeting-place be in Italy. The great railway centres, where Englishmen
of every class and gradation were much employed, offered the best
prospect of meeting with the object of our search, and these were
precisely the sort of places such a man would be certain to resort to.

Our discussion lasted so long that the Croftons put off their journey
till the following