on pressing business; she was too unwell to journey with
me as rapidly as I was obliged to travel; indeed, illness detained
her several weeks in England. In this interval she might have made
acquaintances. Ah, now I see; I guess. You say the name began with B.
Paulina, in my absence, engaged a companion,--a Mrs. Bertram. This lady
accompanied her abroad. Paulina became excessively attached to her, she
knew Italian so well. Mrs. Bertram left her on the road, and returned to
England, for some private affairs of her own. I forget why or wherefore;
if, indeed, I ever asked or learned. Paulina missed her sadly, often
talked of her, wondered why she never heard from her. No doubt it was to
this Mrs. Bertram that she wrote!"

"And you don't know the lady's friends, or address?"

"No."

"Nor who recommended her to your wife?"

"No."

"Probably Lady Jane Horton?"

"It may be so.

"Very likely."

"I will follow up this track, slight as it is."

"But if Mrs. Bertram received the communication, how comes it that it
never reached myself--Oh, fool that I am, how should it! I, who guarded
so carefully my incognito!"

"True. This your wife could not foresee; she would naturally imagine
that your residence in England would be easily discovered. But many
years must have passed since your wife lost sight of this Mrs. Bertram,
if their acquaintance was made so soon after your marriage; and now it
is a long time to retrace,--before even your Violante was born."

"Alas! yes. I lost two fair sons in the interval. Violante was born to
me as the child of sorrow."

"And to make sorrow lovely! how beautiful she is!" The father smiled
proudly.

"Where, in the loftiest houses of Europe, find a husband worthy of such
a prize?"

"You forget that I am still an exile, she still dowerless. You forget
that I am pursued by Peschiera; that I would rather see her a beggar's
wife--than--Pah, the very thought maddens me, it is so foul. Corpo di
Bacco! I have been glad to find her a husband already."

"Already! Then that young man spoke truly?"

"What young man?"

"Randal Leslie. How! You know him?" Here a brief explanation followed.
Harley heard with attentive ear, and marked vexation, the particulars of
Riccabocca's connection and implied engagement with Leslie.

"There is something very suspicious to me in all this," said he.

"Why should this young man have so sounded me as to Violante's chance of
losing fortune if she married, a