king straight out with the almost
mournful smile upon her face?

Then Mr. Alfred spoke again, and told of the glory of colour in Italy,
of the purple hills, the blue Mediterranean, the azure sky of the
South, whose brightness and glory was only surpassed in the North by a
maiden's deep blue eyes. And this he said with a peculiar application;
but she who should have understood his meaning, looked as if she were
quite unconscious of it, and that again was charming!

"Italy!" sighed a few of the guests. "Oh, to travel!" sighed others.
"Charming, charming!" chorused they all.

"Yes, if I win a hundred thousand dollars in the lottery," said the
head tax-collector's lady, "then we will travel. I and my daughter,
and you, Mr. Alfred; you must be our guide. We'll all three travel
together, and one or two good friends more." And she nodded in such a
friendly way at the company, that each one might imagine he or she was
the person who was to be taken to Italy. "Yes, we will go to Italy!
but not to those parts where there are robbers--we'll keep to Rome,
and to the great high roads where one is safe."

And the daughter sighed very quietly. And how much may lie in one
little sigh, or be placed in it! The young man placed a great deal in
it. The two blue eyes, lit up that evening in honour of him, must
conceal treasures--treasures of the heart and mind--richer than all
the glories of Rome; and when he left the party that night he had lost
_his_ heart--lost it completely, to the young lady.

The house of the head tax-collector's widow was the one which Mr.
Alfred the sculptor most assiduously frequented; and it was understood
that his visits were not intended for that lady, though he and she
were the people who kept up the conversation; he came for the
daughter's sake. They called her Kala. Her name was really Calen
Malena, and these two names had been contracted into the one name,
Kala. She was beautiful; but a few said she was rather dull, and
probably slept late of a morning.

"She has been always accustomed to that," her mother said. "She's a
beauty, and they always are easily tired. She sleeps rather late, but
that makes her eyes so clear."

What a power lay in the depths of these dark blue eyes! "Still waters
run deep." The young man felt the truth of this proverb; and his heart
had sunk into the depths. He spoke and told his adventures, and the
mamma was as simple and eager in her questioning as on the first
evening o