journey only for a day, expressly to see you."

"Well," said I, "you took me so by surprise that I had not my welcome
ready. I did not expect the pleasure of seeing you till after our
arrival in Paris."

"That is why I am here. I shall not be able to go to Paris. I am
bitterly disappointed, but monsignore has made other plans for me. I am
to go to Vienna to visit my aunt, whose husband is our ambassador there.
The tour to Paris is postponed till the autumn."

Evidently monsignore had heard of the little heretic maiden, and he was
going to remove his ward from temptation. I was infinitely obliged to
him.

A desultory conversation followed, carried on principally by the young
people, and then the count said, "Miss St. Clair tells me that you have
visited the Uffizi and Pitti galleries. May I not go with you somewhere
to-morrow?--to La Certose or San Miniato, for instance?"

"Thank you," I replied: "we are so exhausted with sight-seeing, Miss St.
Clair and I, that we shall stay in all day to-morrow, and we shall be
happy to see you _once_ in the afternoon or evening, as may be most
convenient for you."

I did not like to be hard and cross to the dear boy whom my heart
yearned over, but I felt as much bound to "make an effort" as if I had
been a veritable Dombey.

The call lasted afternoon _and_ evening: it was only the change of