white ribbon, and came down to breakfast singing gayly.

Miss Vance gave her her roll and milk in silence, and
frowning importantly, drew out a letter.

"Lucy, I have just received a communication from Prince
Wolfburgh. He is in Bozen."

"Here!" Lucy started up, glancing around like a chased
hare.

Then she sat down again and waited. There was no other
chapter, and the book was so blank!

"His coming is very opportune," she said presently,
gently.

"Oh! do YOU think so, my dear? Really! Well, I always
have liked the young man. So simple. So secure of his
social position. The Wolfburghs, I find, go back to the
eleventh century. Mr. Perry had noble traits, but one
never felt quite safe as to his nails or his grammar."

"But the prince--the prince?" cried Jean.

"Oh, yes. Well, he writes--most deferentially. He begs
for the honor of an interview with me this afternoon upon
a subject of the most vital importance. He says,
`regarding you, as I do, in loco parentis to the
hochgeboren Fraulein Dunbar.'"