"I did see her once; but I cannot say that I know her. She used to be a
very handsome woman, and looks to be quite good-natured; but Sir Magnus
has always lived abroad, and except when he came home about your poor
father's death I have seen very little of him."

"I never saw him but that once," said Florence.

And so it was settled that she and her mother were to spend a month at
Brussels.




CHAPTER XI.

MONTE CARLO.


Toward the end of September, while the weather was so hot as to keep
away from the south of France all but very determined travellers, an
English gentleman, not very beautiful in his outward appearance, was
sauntering about the great hall of the gambling-house at Monte Carlo, in
the kingdom or principality of Monaco, the only gambling-house now left
in Europe in which idle men of a speculative nature may yet solace their
hours with some excitement. Nor is the amusement denied to idle ladies,
as might be seen by two or three highly-dressed _habituées_ who at this
moment were depositing their shawls and parasols with the porters. The
clock was on the stroke of eleven, when the gambling-room would be open,
and the amusement was too rich in its nature to allow of the loss of