window, and saw him as he rode up. Now the last time that she had seen
him he had a very different appearance--all his hair being burned off,
from head and cheeks and chin; and the whiskers which he had when she
first met him had been of a different cut from the present appendages.
In spite of this she recognized him almost in a moment; and her heart
beat fast, and her color came and went, and her hands clutched the
window ledge convulsively.

[Illustration: "'IT'S HE!' SHE MURMURED."]

"It's _he_!" she murmured.

Of course there was only one idea in her mind, and that was that he
had heard of her presence in Naples, and had come to call on her.

She sat there without motion, with her head eagerly bent forward, and
her eyes fixed upon him. He looked up carelessly as he came along, and
with his chin in the air, in a fashion peculiar to him, which,
by-the-way, gave a quite unintentional superciliousness to his
expression. For an instant his eyes rested upon her, then they moved
away, without the slightest recognition, and wandered elsewhere.

Ethel's heart seemed turned to stone. He had seen her. He had not
noticed her. He had fixed his eyes on her and then looked away.
Bitter, indeed, was all this to her. To think that after so long a
period of waiting--after such hope and watching as hers had been--that
this should be the end. She turned away from the window, with a
choking sensation in her throat. No one was in the room. She was alone
with her thoughts and her tears.