and gave a little start. Then she looked awfully embarrassed. Then she
turned to Lady Dalrymple; and by the time I had got up the carriage
had stopped, and the ladies both looked at me and bowed. I went up,
and they both held out their hands. Lady Dalrymple then made some
remarks expressive of gratitude, while the child-angel sat and
fastened her wonderful eyes on me, and threw at me such a pleading,
touching, entreating, piteous, grateful, beseeching look, that I
fairly collapsed.

"When Lady Dalrymple stopped, she turned to her and said:

"'And oh, aunty darling, did you _ever_ hear of any thing like it? It
was _so_ brave. Wasn't it an awfully plucky thing to do, now? And I
was really inside the crater! I'm sure _I_ never could have done such
a thing--no, not even for my _own papa_! Oh, how I do _wish_ I could
do something to show how _awfully_ grateful I am! And, aunty darling,
I do _wish_ you'd tell me what to do.'

"All this quite turned my head, and I couldn't say any thing; but sat
on my saddle, devouring the little thing with my eyes, and drinking in
the wonderful look which she threw at me. At last the carriage
started, and the ladies, with a pleasant smile, drove on. I think I
stood still there for about five minutes, until I was nearly run down
by one of those beastly Neapolitan calèches loaded with twenty or
thirty natives."

"See here, old man, what a confoundedly good memory you have! You
remember no end of a lot of things, and give all her speeches
verbatim. What a capital newspaper reporter you'd make!"