her was pleasant till there came to her a touch of
a suspicion that the marriage which Mr. Glascock was going to make
would be detrimental to her intended husband in his own country.
There were many in Florence who were saying this besides the wife of
the English Minister and Lady Rowley. Of course Caroline Spalding
herself was the last to hear it, and to her the idea was brought
by Wallachia Petrie. "I wish I could think you would make yourself
happy,--or him," Wallachia had said, croaking.

"Why should I fail to make him happy?"

"Because you are not of the same blood, or race, or manners as
himself. They say that he is very wealthy in his own country, and
that those who live around him will look coldly on you."

"So that he does not look coldly, I do not care how others may look,"
said Caroline proudly.

"But when he finds that he has injured himself by such a marriage in
the estimation of all his friends,--how will it be then?"

This set Caroline Spalding thinking of what she was doing. She began
to realise the feeling that perhaps she might not be a fit bride for
an English lord's son, and in her agony she came to Nora Rowley for
counsel. After all, how little was it that she knew of the home and
the country to which she was to be carried! She might not, perhaps,
get adequate advice from Nora, but she would probably learn something
on which she could act. There was no one else among the English at
Florence to whom she could speak with freedom. When she mentioned her
fears to her aunt, her aunt of course laughed at her. Mrs. Spalding
told her that Mr. Glascock might be presumed to know his own business
best, and that she, as an American lady of high standing,--the niece
of a minister!--was a fitting match for any Englishman, let him be
ever so much a lord. But Caroline was not comforted by this, and in
her suspense she went to Nora Rowley. She wrote a line to Nora, and
when she called at the hotel, was taken up to her friend's bed-room.
She found great difficulty in telling her story, but she did tell it.
"Miss Rowley," she said, "if this is a silly thing that he is going
to do, I am bound to save him from his own folly. You know your own
country better than I do. Will they think that he has disgraced
himself?"

"Certainly not that," said Nora.

"Shall I be a load round his neck? Miss Rowley, for my own sake I
would not endure such a position as that, not even though I love him.
But for his sake! Think of