whom I love very much."

In a few moments a tall, slender, dark girl appeared, her hair hanging
down, and her youthful figure showing unmistakably beneath an old dress
of her mother's.

The latter at once told her how matters stood.

"This is Francesca's Frenchman, you know, the one whom she knew last
year. He is quite alone, and has come to look for her, poor fellow; so I
told him that you would go with him to keep him company."

The girl looked at me with her handsome dark eyes, and said, smiling:

"I have no objection, if he wishes it."

I could not possibly refuse, and merely said:

"Of course, I shall be very glad of your company."

Her mother pushed her out. "Go and get dressed directly; put on your
blue dress and your hat with the flowers, and make haste."

As soon as she had left the room the old woman explained herself: "I
have two others, but they are much younger. It costs a lot of money to
bring up four children. Luckily the eldest is off my hands at present."

Then she told all about herself, about her husband, who had been an
employee on the railway, but who was dead, and she expatiated on the
good qualities of Carlotta, her second girl, who soon returned, dressed,
as her sister had been, in a striking, peculiar manner.

Her mother examined her from head to foot, and, after finding everything
right, she said:

"Now, my children, you can go." Then turning to the girl, she said: "Be
sure you are back by ten o'clock to-night; you know the door is locked
then." The answer was:

"All right, mamma; don't alarm yourself."

She took my arm and we went wandering about the streets, just as I had
wandered the previous year with her sister.

We returned to the hotel for lunch, and then I took my new friend to
Santa Margarita, just as I had taken her sister the year previously.

During the whole fortnight which I had at my disposal, I took Carlotta
to all the places of interest in and about Genoa. She gave me no cause
to regret her sister.

She cried when I left her, and the morning of my departure I gave
her four bracelets for her mother, besides a substantial token of my
affection for herself.

One of these days I intend to return to Italy, and I cannot help
remembering with a certain amount of uneasiness, mingled with hope, that
Madame Rondoli has two more daughters.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Short Stories of Maupassant,
Volume 6, by Guy de Maupassant

*** END