sign that again and
still be Emilia Alessandra Ammiani.

"SANDRA BELLONI"

The letter was sealed; Luigi bore it away, and a brief letter to
Countess Ammiani, in Pallanza, as well.

Vittoria was relieved of her anxiety concerning Merthyr by the arrival
of Georgiana, who had been compelled to make her way round by Piacenza
and Turin, where she had left Gambier, with Beppo in attendance on him.
Georgiana at once assumed all the duties of head-nurse, and the more
resolutely because of her brother's evident moral weakness in sighing
for the hand of a fickle girl to smooth his pillow. "When he is stronger
you can sit beside him a little," she said to Vittoria, who surrendered
her post without a struggle, and rarely saw him, though Laura told her
that his frequent exclamation was her name, accompanied by a soft look
at his sister--"which would have stirred my heart like poor old Milan
last March," Laura added, with a lift of her shoulders.

Georgiana's icy manner appeared infinitely strange to Vittoria when
she heard from Merthyr that his sister had become engaged to Captain
Gambier.

"Nothing softens these women," said Laura, putting Georgiana in a class.

"I wish you could try the effect of your winning Merthyr," Vittoria
suggested.

"I remember that when I went to my husband, I likewise wanted every
woman of my acquaintance to be married." Laura sighed deeply. "What
is this poor withered body of mine now? It feels like an old volcano,
cindery, with fire somewhere:--a charming bride! My dear, if I live till
my children make me a grandmother, I shall look on the love of men and
women as a toy that I have played with. A new husband? I must be dragged
through the Circles of Dante before I can conceive it, and then I should
loathe the stranger."

News came that the volunteers were crushed. It was time for Vittoria
to start for Pallanza, and she thought of her leave-taking; a final
leave-taking, in one sense, to the friends who had cared too much for
her. Laura delicately drew Georgiana aside in the sick-room, which she
would not quit, and alluded to the necessity for Vittoria's departure
without stating exactly wherefore: but Georgiana was a Welshwoman.
Partly to show her accurate power of guessing, and chiefly that she
might reprove Laura's insulting whisper, which outraged and irritated
her as much as if "Oh! your poor brother!" had been exclaimed, she made
display of Merthyr's manly coldness by s