"Perhaps I shall become a Protestant.") "Don't you think her father
would let her marry a Catholic?"

"No," I replied stoically.

He was silent and dejected.

"You must forget her," said I kindly. "It is only a little while since
you first saw her."

"A little while! It is my whole life!" "Only a few weeks," I continued.
"We shall soon be across the ocean, and you will see other ladies."

"There is only one Miss St. Clair."

"I beg your pardon--there are three of them." But the boy was too
miserable to notice this poor little sally.

We were approaching the hotel. "I shall not see you again at present,"
said he. "Monsignore will arrive this evening, and I must be at home to
receive him. But I shall be in Paris by the middle of May, and I shall
see you there: farewell till then."

The next morning Miss St. Clair and I were on our way to Florence. A
week later, on our return from the convent of San Marco, where we had
seen the cell of Savonarola and many lovely but faded frescoes of Fra
Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo, whom should we find waiting for us in our
temporary home on the Via Pandolfini but Count Alvala? I felt annoyed,
and my face must have revealed it, for he said deprecatingly, "You ought
to be glad to see your boy, Madame Fleming, for I have come this long