t you
dare, and I'll be content with it."

She opened her handkerchief purse and delved among the various articles
therein.

"I expected that you would be asking questions, so I came prepared. I
did not tell my husband for that very reason. He would have insisted
upon knowing everything. Here, read this. It is only a glimpse."

He searched eagerly for the signature.

"Don't bother," she said. "The name is only a nickname we gave her at
school."

"School? Do you mean to tell me that you went to school with her?
Where?"

"In Pennsylvania first; then in Milan. Read."

O Cara Mia--If only you knew how sorry I am to miss you! Why must
you sail at once? Why not come to my beautiful Venice? True, I
could not entertain you as in the days of my good father. But I
have so much to say to you that can not be written. You ask about
the adventure. Pouf! goes my little dream of greatness. It was a
blank failure. Much as I knew about Italy I could not know
everything. The officials put unheard-of obstacles in our path. The
contracts were utterly disregarded. In the first place, we had not
purchased our costumes and scenery in Italy.

"Costumes and scenery?" Hillard sought the signature again. Mrs.
Sandford was staring at the moonlit bay.

That poor manager! And that poor man who advanced the money! They
forgot that the booking is as nothing, the incidentals everything.
The base of all the trouble was a clerk in the consulate at Naples.
He wrote us that there would be no duties on costumes and scenery.
Alas! the manager and his backer are on the way to America, sadder
and wiser men. We surrendered our return tickets to the chorus and
sent them home. The rest of us are stranded--is not that the
word?--here in Venice, waiting for money from home. If I were
alone, it would be highly amusing; but these poor people with me!
There is only one way I can help them, but that, never. You
recollect that my personal income is quarterly, and it will be two
months before I shall have funds. I could get it advanced, but I
dare not. There are persons moving Heaven and earth to find me. My
companions haven't the least idea who I am; to them I am one of the
profession. So here we all are, wandering about the Piazza San
Marco, calling at Cook's every day in hopes of money, and
occasionally risking a penny in corn fo