s, and what a blight would have fallen upon her spirits! But
Mrs. Willoughby remained in the most blissful ignorance of the persons
of these travelers, and so was able to maintain the sunshine of her
soul.

At length there came over that sunny soul the first cloud.

The solitary horseman, who had been riding behind, had overtaken the
different carriages.

The first carriage contained Lord Hawbury and Scone Dacres. As the
horseman passed, he recognized them with a careless nod and smile.

Scone Dacres grasped Lord Hawbury's arm.

"Did you see him?" he cried. "The Italian! I thought so! What do you
say now? Wasn't I right?"

"By Jove!" cried Lord Hawbury.

Whereupon Dacres relapsed into silence, sitting upright, glaring after
the horseman, cherishing in his gloomy soul the darkest and most
vengeful thoughts.

The horseman rode on further, and overtook the next carriage. In this
there were two men, one in the uniform of the Papal Zouaves, the other
in rusty black. He turned toward these, and greeted them with the same
nod and smile.

"Do you see that man, parson?" said the Baron to his companion. "Do
you recognize him?"

"No."

"Well, you saw him at Minnie's house. He came in."

"No, he didn't."

"Didn't he? No. By thunder, it wasn't that time. Well, at any rate,
that man, I believe, is at the bottom of the row. It's my belief that
he's trying to cut me out, and he'll find he's got a hard row to hoe
before he succeeds in that project."

And with these words the Baron sat glaring after the Italian, with
something in his eye that resembled faintly the fierce glance of Scone
Dacres.

The Italian rode on. A few miles further were the two carriages.
Minnie and her sister were sitting on the front seats, and saw the
stranger as he advanced. He soon came near enough to be distinguished,
and Mrs. Willoughby recognized Girasole.

Her surprise was so great that she uttered an exclamation of terror,
which startled the other ladies, and made them all look in that
direction.

"How very odd!" said Ethel, thoughtfully.

"And now I suppose you'll all go and say that I brought _him_ too,"
said Minnie. "That's _always_ the way you do. You _never_ seem to
think that I may be innocent. You _always_ blame me for every little
mite of a thing that may happen."

No one made any remark, and there was silence in the carriage as the
stranger approached. The ladies bowed somewhat coolly, except Minnie,
who threw upon him t