a man in some free, wild,
adventure-filled land.

A month after Father Pietro's death Roger and his little daughter
Antonia were in England. The father's first object was to seek out his
brother Fred and see if he and his wife would take charge of the child
for a short time; and this he found both Fred and his comely spouse very
willing to do. There were other children in the home who were only too
ready to welcome the pretty little Toni; and after a stay of some weeks
in the noisy Brixton house Roger Gibbs had bidden his little daughter
farewell, and had gone forth once more, this time as assistant purser on
a liner, a post to which one of his former employers had assisted him
opportunely. It was a chance to see more of the world, and the man
embraced it gladly enough, though it would certainly prove irksome in
the end.

After that it was long before Toni saw her father again. At regular
intervals he sent money for her maintenance; and she grew up with her
cousins, attending the big Council School in the next street with them,
and sharing in all the ups and downs of the Gibbs family.

When she was thirteen Roger returned from an expedition to Peru, in the
course of which he had amassed a respectable sum of money, and father
and daughter met again, a meeting fraught, on Roger's side, with
something like disappointment.

Four years of London life had transformed the olive-skinned, dreamy-eyed
child into a pale, long-legged girl who, although she had not lost her
soft Southern voice, used the colloquialisms of street and playground
with unpleasing fluency. True, she wore her shabby clothes with an air
of grace, but contact with other children had developed her into a
sharp, somewhat pert _gamine_, who was reputed quick at her lessons, but
equally, and less meritoriously, quick with her tongue.

Within her father's mind disillusionment reigned supreme. Naturally, it
was not the fault of the child that she had taken on so quickly the
colour of her environment; nor, fortunately, was it too late to overlay
those traits with other and more pleasing characteristics. But thinking
of the soft-eyed, gentle, loving Italian girl he had married, Roger
resolved that her child should have another chance before it was too
late; and with that object in mind he scoured the neighbourhood until he
found what suited him, a quiet, old-fashioned ladies' school, conducted
by two prim but kindly women who appeared to him likely to have the