dream of saying a word to him about the matter until I was married, and
nothing could be done to separate me from Bianca."

"So that, upon the whole, you appear to stand a very fair chance of
starvation, if everything turns out according to your wishes. And pray,
in what way do you imagine that I can assist you toward this desirable
end? For I take it for granted that you have some reason for letting me
into your secret."

Von Rosenau laughed good-humouredly.

"You form conclusions quickly," he said. "Well, I will confess to you
that I have thought lately that you might be of great service to me
without inconveniencing yourself much. The other day, when you did me
the honour to introduce me to your sister, I was very nearly telling her
all. She has such a kind countenance; and I felt sure that she would not
refuse to let my poor Bianca visit her sometimes. The old marchese, you
see, would have no objection to leaving his daughter for hours under the
care of an English lady; and I thought that perhaps when Miss Jenkinson
went out to work at her painting--I might come in."

"Fortunate indeed is it for you," I said, "that your confidence in the
kind countenance of my sister Anne did not carry you quite to the point
of divulging this precious scheme to her. I, who know her pretty well,
can tell you exactly the course she would have pursued if you had.
Without one moment's hesitation, she would have found out the address of
the young lady's father, hurried off thither, and told him all about
it. Anne is a thoroughly good creature; but she has little sympathy with
love-making, still less with surreptitious love-making, and she would as
soon think of accepting the part you are so good as to assign to her as
of forging a check."

He sighed, and said he supposed, then, that they must continue to
meet as they had been in the habit of doing, but that it was rather
unsatisfactory.

"It says something for your ingenuity that you contrive to meet at all,"
I remarked.

"Well, yes, there are considerable difficulties, because the old man's
movements are so uncertain; and there is some risk too, for, as you
heard the other day, we have been seen together. Moreover, I have
been obliged to tell everything to my servant Johann, who waylays the
marchese's housekeeper at market in the mornings, and finds out from
her when and where I can have an opportunity of meeting Bianca. I would
rather not have trusted him; but I could think of