, he was greatly surprised to find everything in the same
state of preservation as when he had last beheld his home, once so dear;
instead of an air of desolation, everything falling to decay, as would
be a natural consequence attendant upon the long absence of the family,
the scrupulous care and attention of some interested one, was apparent
on all sides. Even the little ivied bower, which Mr. Sunderland had
arranged with his own hands, when he first smiled upon his beautiful
bride, was still in existence; and here did Natalie dream away many a
happy hour, during her stay in dear Florence.

The old man and his frugal wife, to whose keeping the premises had been
entrusted, and who occupied a small tenement upon the grounds, could
not have been more surprised if one had appeared to them from the dead,
than were they when Mr. Alboni stood in the door of their cottage.

"I told you his honor would come again!" said the woman, turning to her
husband; "but I was really afeared it mightn't be in our time; and as
we've no one to leave in our shoes, I'm of the 'pinion that the place
would've dropped off to some stranger."

"Ha, yes," replied the husband, "my old woman's never far out o' the
way, though she does sometimes talk as if she expected to become
extinguished; but for all that, she's equal to two common ones. But I'm
particularly glad you've come home, on a good many 'counts, for if the
place must go into any other hands than an Alboni, I'm not over anxious
to witness the change in the coat of arms."

Mr. Alboni received this compliment as it was intended, and as one
motive in visiting his native land again was to dispose of this estate,
he now directed his attention to the future comfort of this most worthy
couple; for the domestics who had served in the family of Alboni, must
not suffer from want. Accordingly a comfortable cottage, adjoining
these lands, was obtained for their use, and an annual income,
sufficient to supply their wants, settled upon them for life; and so
with the estate of the Albonis, whose last representative of the name
would soon depart, for a memorial of days past, this aged couple hoped
to spend in contentment the residue of their days.

Amid all the splendor and gayety of fashionable life in Italy, the
Sea-flower was never so happy as when seated in the ivy bower, which
looked out upon a little lake, the same which had been her mother's
favorite place of retreat, where she might watch the e