sible for the struggle of life; Mrs. Richling agreed with this rather
vague theory, but she was sure that Clementina would get married to
greater advantage in Florence than anywhere else. They neither of them
really knew anything at first hand about Florence; the rector's opinion
was grounded on the thought of the joy that a sojourn in Italy would
have been to him; his wife derived her hope of a Florentine marriage for
Clementina from several romances in which love and travel had gone hand
in hand, to the lasting credit of triumphant American girlhood.

The Claxons were not able to enter into their view of the case, but if
Mrs. Lander wanted to go to Florence instead of Florida they did not see
why Clementina should not go with her to one place as well as the other.
They were not without a sense of flattery from the fact that their
daughter was going to Europe; but they put that as far from them as they
could, the mother severely and the father ironically, as something too
silly, and they tried not to let it weigh with them in making up their
mind, but to consider only Clementina's best good, and not even
to regard her pleasure. Her mother put before her the most crucial
questions she could think of, in her letter, and then gave her full
leave from her father as well as herself to go if she wished.

Clementina had rather it had been too late to go with the Milrays, but
she felt bound to own her decision when she reached it; and Mrs. Milray,
whatever her real wish was, made it a point of honor to help get Mrs.
Lander berths on her steamer. It did not require much effort; there
are plenty of berths for the latest-comers on a winter passage, and
Clementina found herself the fellow passenger of Mrs. Milray.

XVI.

As soon as Mrs. Lander could make her way to her state-room, she
got into her berth, and began to take the different remedies for
sea-sickness which she had brought with her. Mrs. Milray said that was
nice, and that now she and Clementina could have a good time. But before
it came to that she had taken pity on a number of lonely young men whom
she found on board. She cheered them up by walking round the ship with
them; but if any of them continued dull in spite of this, she dropped
him, and took another; and before she had been two days out she had
gone through with nearly all the lonely young men on the list of cabin
passengers. She introduced some of them to Clementina, but at such times
as she had them