after to-morrow," repeated Fanny.

Here Boltay popped in again.

"Wait a moment, my dear uncle," said Fanny; "I want to write a few lines
to Aunt Teresa, which you can take with you."

"All right, though it is a pity to ink your fingers, I think, for I can
give her the message all the same, if you tell me what it is."

"Very well, daddy, tell aunty to bring me a ball of _cashmir harras_, a
yard of _pur de laine_, or _poil-de-chevre_----"

Boltay was frightened at all those foreign words.

"It will be better, after all, if you write it down," said he; "I can
never learn all that."

Fanny, smiling all the time, produced her writing materials and wrote a
short letter, which she folded up, sealed, and gave to Boltay.

Mrs. Meyer cast a significant glance at the girl out of the corner of
her eye, allowed herself to be lifted up into the cart; the whip
cracked, and off they went.

Fanny remained looking after them for some time, and then with a cold,
contemptuous expression, returned to her room, watered her flowers, fed
her birds, and sang herself back into a good humour again.

On reaching town, Boltay dismounted at the first shop (he pretended he
had some indispensable purchase to make), and bade the coachman take
Mrs. Meyer to where she wanted to go. He would find his way to his house
on foot, he said.

Not very long afterwards Mrs. Meyer found herself once more in the
circle of her well-beloved. Abellino had just looked in, and the girls
were wild to know how their mother had fared.

It took Mrs. Meyer a good couple of hours to tell them all about her
happy adventure: how she had struggled, how much eloquence she had
expended till she had compelled the girl to surrender. For the girl was
frightfully modest, she said, and she had to make her believe that the
gentleman really meant to make her his wife, and had said so all along.

Abellino, in his joy, could scarce restrain himself from embracing the
duenna at intervals, during the course of her entertaining narrative,
especially when she told him what a splendid picture she had drawn of
him to Fanny.

Well, let us leave them all making merry together, and accompany Boltay
homewards also. Teresa was already awaiting him in the doorway, for the
coachman had arrived first, and told her he was coming. His first care
was to give her the letter.

"I have brought you a letter," said he, "but its contents are Greek to
me. Why, I couldn't even pronounce the ling