are over.'"

"My dear Bella, my head is racking; would you just wet that handkerchief
and lay it on my forehead?"

"My poor sweet Alice! and I so cruel, with all my stupid stories; but I
thought you 'd like to hear about Tony."

"Tony!--what of Tony?" asked she, raising herself on one elbow and
looking up.

"Well, dearest, it was while in search after Tony that M'Grader got
imprisoned. They were sworn friends, it seems. You know, dear, Tony was
never very particular in his choice of friends."

"But what of him,--where is he?"

"I'll tell you everything, if you'll only have a little patience. Tony,
who was living with M'Grader in Leghorn,--a partner, I think, in some
odious traffic,--cast-off clothes, I believe,--grew tired of it, or got
into debt, or did something that brought him into trouble, and he ran
away and joined that mad creature Garibaldi."

"Well, go on."

"Well, he had not been gone more than ten days or so, when a lawyer came
out from England to say that his uncle, Sir Somebody Butler, had died
and left him all he had,--a fine estate, and I don't know how much
money. When Mr. M'Grader was quite satisfied that all this was
true,--and, like a canny Scotchman, he examined it thoroughly,--he set
off himself to find Tony and tell him his good news; for, as he said,
it would have been a terrible thing to let him go risk his life for
nothing, now that he had a splendid fortune and large estate. Indeed,
you should have heard Mr. M'Gruder himself on this theme. It was about
the strangest medley of romance and worldliness I ever listened to.
After all, he was a stanch friend, and he braved no common dangers in
his pursuit. He had scarcely landed, however, in Sicily, when he was
arrested and thrown into prison."

"And never met Tony?"

"Never,--of course not; how could he? He did not even dare to speak of
one who served under Garibaldi till he met Skeffy."

"But where is Tony? Is he safe? How are we to hear of him?" asked Alice,
hurriedly.

"Skeff has undertaken all that, Alice. You know how he has relations
with men of every party, and is equally at home with the wildest
followers of Mazzini and the courtiers about the throne. He says he 'll
send off a confidential messenger at once to Garibaldi's camp with a
letter for Tony. Indeed, it was all I could do to prevent him going
himself, he is so attached to Tony, but I begged and implored him not to
go."

"Tony would have done as much for him," said