, which was a fairly clean and
respectable cottage close to the gates of the villa. Here Mr. Luttrell
could visit the child from time to time; but as his wife's illness
became more serious he saw less and less of the baby, and left it more
than ever to Vincenza's care.

Vincenza's own children were with their grandmother at a hamlet three
miles from San Stefano. The grandmother, generally known as old Assunta,
used to bring one or another of them sometimes to see Vincenza. Perhaps
they took the infection of fever in the course of these visits; at any
rate one of them was soon reported to be seriously ill, and Vincenza was
cautioned against taking the Luttrells' baby into the village. It was
the little Lippo Vasari who was ill; his twin-brother Dino was reported
perfectly well.

Some days afterwards Mr. Luttrell, on calling at the cottage as usual,
noticed that Vincenza's eyes were red, and her manner odd and abrupt.
Old Assunta was there, with the baby upon her knee. Mr. Luttrell asked
what was the matter. Vincenza turned away and burst into tears.

"She has lost her baby, signor," the old woman explained. "The little
one died last night at the village, and Vincenza could not see it. The
doctor will tell you about it all," she said, nodding significantly, and
lowering her voice. "He knows."

Mr. Luttrell questioned the doctor, and received his assurance that
Vincenza's child (one of the twins) had been kept strictly apart from
the little Brian Luttrell; and that there could be no danger of
infection. In which assurance the doctor was perfectly sincere, not
knowing that Vincenza's habit had been to spend a portion of almost
every evening at her mother's house, in order to see her own children,
to whom, however, she did not seem to be passionately attached.

It is to be noted that the Luttrells still learned nothing of the
existence of the other baby; they fancied that all Vincenza's children
were dead. Vincenza had thought that the English lady would be
prejudiced against her if she knew that she was the mother of twins, and
had left them both to old Assunta's care; so, even when Lippo was laid
to rest in the churchyard at San Stefano, the little Dino was carefully
kept in the background and not suffered to appear. Neither Mr. Luttrell
nor Mrs. Luttrell (until long afterwards) knew that Vincenza had another
child.

Two months passed before Mrs. Luttrell was sufficiently restored to
health to be able to see her chi