summer. I think you had better get a holiday
right away from the neighborhood of Leghorn. I
can't have you breaking down in health."

"Where shall you go when the seminary closes,
Padre?"

"I shall have to take the pupils into the hills,
as usual, and see them settled there. But by the
middle of August the subdirector will be back
from his holiday. I shall try to get up into the
Alps for a little change. Will you come with me?
I could take you for some long mountain rambles,
and you would like to study the Alpine mosses and
lichens. But perhaps it would be rather dull for
you alone with me?"

"Padre!" Arthur clasped his hands in what
Julia called his "demonstrative foreign way." "I
would give anything on earth to go away with
you. Only--I am not sure----" He stopped.

"You don't think Mr. Burton would allow
it?"

"He wouldn't like it, of course, but he could
hardly interfere. I am eighteen now and can do
what I choose. After all, he's only my step-brother;
I don't see that I owe him obedience.
He was always unkind to mother."