ey have kept such a picture when they were so poor?
Why didn't they sell it?"

"That would hardly have occurred to them. It was evidently a family
heirloom that the girl had taken with her because she loved it. I
doubt if she guessed its value. A Bellini! A Giovanni Bellini, in a
New York tenement house! Think of it! And now I suppose some
millionaire has got it. Likely enough somebody who doesn't know enough
to buy his own pictures! Horrible idea! Horrible!" and Mr. Grey strode
along, all but snorting with rage at the thought.

"But tell me more about the little girl," Blythe entreated, wishing
the wind wouldn't blow her words out of her mouth so rudely. "Her name
is Cecilia, you say?"

"Yes; Cecilia. Dopo is the name they went by, but the nurse doesn't
think it genuine. Her idea is that her Signora was the daughter of
some great family, and got herself disowned by marrying an opera
singer who subsequently made a fiasco and dropped his name with his
fame. She doesn't think Dopo ever was a family name. It means 'after,'
you know, and they may have adopted it for its ironical
significance."

"And the poor lady died and never told!" Blythe panted, as they toiled
painfully up-hill with the rain beating in their faces.

"Yes, and--look out! hold tight!" for suddenly the slant of the deck
was reversed, and they came coasting down to an impromptu seat on a
bench.

"It seems," Mr. Grey went on, when they had resumed their somewhat
arduous promenade,--"it seems the woman, Giuditta, is quite alone in
the world and has been longing to get back to Italy. So she easily
persuaded herself that she could find the child's family and establish
her in high life. Giuditta has an uncommonly high idea of high life,"
he added. "I think she imagines that somebody in a court train and a
coronet will come to meet her Signorina at the pier in Genoa. Poor
things! There'll be a rude awakening!"

"But we won't let it be rude!" Blythe protested. "We must do something
about it. Can't you think of anything to do?"

They were standing now, clinging to the friendly rope stretched across
the deck, shoulder high.

"Giuditta's plan," Mr. Grey replied, "is the naive one of appealing to
the Queen about it. And, seriously, I think it may be worth while to
ask the American Minister to make inquiries. For there is, of course,
a bare chance that the family may be known at Court. In the
meantime----"

"In the meantime," Blythe interposed, "we've got