ch might
attract the current, are in the other carriage. And, in any case, we are
infinitely safer than if we were walking. Courage--courage and faith."

Under the rug, Lucy felt the kindly pressure of her cousin's hand. At
times our need for a sympathetic gesture is so great that we care
not what exactly it signifies or how much we may have to pay for it
afterwards. Miss Bartlett, by this timely exercise of her muscles,
gained more than she would have got in hours of preaching or cross
examination.

She renewed it when the two carriages stopped, half into Florence.

"Mr. Eager!" called Mr. Beebe. "We want your assistance. Will you
interpret for us?"

"George!" cried Mr. Emerson. "Ask your driver which way George went. The
boy may lose his way. He may be killed."

"Go, Mr. Eager," said Miss Bartlett, "don't ask our driver; our driver is
no help. Go and support poor Mr. Beebe--, he is nearly demented."

"He may be killed!" cried the old man. "He may be killed!"

"Typical behaviour," said the chaplain, as he quitted the carriage. "In
the presence of reality that kind of person invariably breaks down."

"What does he know?" whispered Lucy as soon as they were alone.
"Charlotte, how much does Mr. Eager know?"

"Nothing, dearest; he knows nothing. But--" she pointed at the
driver-"HE knows everything. Dearest, had we better? Shall I?" She took
out her purse. "It is dreadful to be entangled with low-class people.
He saw it all." Tapping Phaethon's back with her guide-book, she said,
"Silenzio!" and offered him a franc.

"Va bene," he replied, and accepted it. As well this ending to his day
as any. But Lucy, a mortal maid, was disappointed in him.

There was an explosion up the road. The storm had struck the overhead
wire of the tramline, and one of the great supports had fallen. If they
had not stopped perhaps they might have been hurt. They chose to regard
it as a miraculous preservation, and the floods of love and sincerity,
which fructify every hour of life, burst forth in tumult. They descended
from the carriages; they embraced each other. It was as joyful to be
forgiven past unworthinesses as to forgive them. For a moment they
realized vast possibilities of good.

The older people recovered quickly. In the very height of their emotion
they knew it to be unmanly or unladylike. Miss Lavish calculated that,
even if they had continued, they would not have been caught in the
accident. Mr. Eager mumbled a tempera