"Nor I."

"Nor I, the least bit."

"Everyone has left the hotel but ourselves," said he.

"How sorry they will be, afterward," remarked Beth.

He looked at them admiringly, and kissed each one.

"You stay in this room and don't move a peg till I get back," he
enjoined them; "I'm going out to look over the situation."




CHAPTER VII

A FRIEND IN NEED


Some of Mr. Merrick's business friends in New York, hearing of his
proposed trip, had given him letters of introduction to people in
various European cities. He had accepted them--quite a bunch,
altogether--but had firmly resolved not to use them. Neither he nor the
nieces cared to make superficial acquaintances during their wanderings.
Yet Uncle John chanced to remember that one of these letters was to a
certain Colonel Angeli of the Twelfth Italian Regiment, occupying the
barracks on the Pizzofalcone hill at Naples. This introduction, tendered
by a relative of the Colonel's American wife, was now reposing in Mr.