CHAPTER XII.



GIRASOLE AGAIN.

One day Mrs. Willoughby and Minnie were out driving. Hawbury was
riding by the carriage on the side next Minnie, when suddenly their
attention was arrested by a gentleman on horseback who was approaching
them at an easy pace, and staring hard at them. Minnie's hand suddenly
grasped her sister's arm very tightly, while her color came and went
rapidly.

"Oh dear!" sighed Mrs. Willoughby.

"Oh, what _shall_ I do?" said Minnie, in a hasty whisper. "Can't we
pretend not to see him?"

"Nonsense, you little goose," was the reply. "How can you think of
such rudeness?"

By this time the gentleman had reached them, and Mrs. Willoughby
stopped the carriage, and spoke to him in a tone of gracious suavity,
in which there was a sufficient recognition of his claims upon her
attention, mingled with a slight hauteur that was intended to act as a
check upon his Italian demonstrativeness.

For it was no other than the Count Girasole, and his eyes glowed with