ily away.

* * *

When the Princess Leaney arrived at Ancona on the following day, and
found no Mansana there to greet her at the railway station, she was
seized by a sudden indefinable apprehension. Hurrying to the
telegraph-office she sent him an anxiously worded despatch, which
testified to her alarm. She went home, and waited for the answer, her
fears gaining ground as the minutes went by. At length a messenger
arrived with the money that had been paid for the reply to the
telegram, and the information that the message could not be delivered,
as Captain Mansana had quitted the town.

At this her fears completely overwhelmed her. The self-reproach, under
which she had lived for days, assumed mountainous proportions, and its
shadow seemed to blot out all other thoughts. She must find him
wherever he was, talk to him, care for him, yes, and nurse him, if, as
she gravely feared, there was need for that. The same evening, with one
servant only in attendance, she was on the platform of the railway
station.

At dawn of the next day she was pacing backwards and forwards at the
junction where the train from the West was to be met. She paid no
attention to her few fellow-travellers, in whom, however, her
self-absorption added to the interest and curiosity she aroused as she
swept by them in her restless walk to and fro, with her long white fur
cloak thrown back over her shoulders, and her loose hair and floating
veil tangled together below her fur cap. In her large, wide-opened
eyes, and in the whole face, there was the tense expression of
overwrought emotion and exhaustion. In her walk she several times
passed a tall lady, very simply dressed, who was looking intently into
the luggage van, round which a busy little group had collected. Once,
just as Theresa passed the group, an officer came up and spoke a few
words to the lady, and in answer to a question addressed to him by one
of the railway officials, replied with the word "Mansana."

The princess started.

"Mansana?" she cried. "What----"

"Princess Leaney?" exclaimed the officer, in accents of astonishment,
as he saluted her.

"Is it you, Major Sardi?" she answered, and added hastily: "But
Mansana? What of him? You mentioned his name."

"Yes. This is his mother."

The Major presented the younger lady to the elder. As the mother drew
her veil aside, the calm, noble face that was revealed filled Theresa
with a