ughter of the late Sir George
Cunyngham, and sister of Sir Hugh Cunyngham, of the Braes, Perthshire,
and Aivron Lodge, Campden Hill.' I should like to have sent them a
little wedding-present," he went on, absently, "for both of them have
been very kind to me; but I am grown penurious in my old age; I suppose
we shall have to consider every farthing for many a day to come."

"Leo, why will you not take any of my money?" Nina exclaimed, but with
shy and downcast face.

"Your money!" he said, laughing. "You talk as if you were a Russian
princess, Ntoniella!"

He drew aside the reeded blind of one of the windows and went out into
the soft air; both land and sea--that beautiful stretch of shining
blue--seemed quivering in the heat and abundant sunlight of June.

"Nina, Nina!" he called, "you must make haste; the _Risposta_ will soon
be coming near, and we must be down in town to welcome Maurice and
Francie when they come ashore."

In a second or two she was ready, and he also.

"There are so many things I shall have to tell Maurice," he said, just
as they were about to leave the house. "But do you think I shall be able
to tell him, Ntoniella? No. He must guess. What you have been to me,
what you are to me, how can I tell him or any one?"

He took both her hands in his and looked long and lovingly into her
upturned face.

"_Ntonie, tu si state a sciorta mia!_" he said, meaning thereby that
good-fortune had befallen him at last. It was a pretty speech, and Nina,
with her beautiful dark eyes fixed on his, answered him in the same
dialect, and almost in the same terms, if in a lower voice:

"_E a sciorta mia si tu!_"

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prince Fortunatus, by William Black

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCE FORTUNATUS ***

***** This file should be named 16217.txt or 16217.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/1/16217/

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Pilar Somoza and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,