, after a first-class night's sleep, we'll go over the
Gotthard, and be in Milan Monday. And then, ho for Genoa, Gibraltar, and
joy everlasting!"

He seized Rosina's hand and gave it a hard squeeze.

"Cheer up, you poor dear!" he cried; "you'll come out all right in the
end,--now you see!"

She pressed her lips tightly together and did not trust herself to say
one word in reply.

She felt that she was beginning to really hate her cousin.

Chapter Fifteen

They stood at the summit of that double flight of marble steps which run
up the right-hand side of the Milan Cathedral's roof and down the left.
There are one hundred steps on either side, and having just mounted the
right-hand hundred Rosina looked down the left-hand hundred with an
affright born of appreciative understanding.

"Oh, Jack," she cried, "I never shall get down from here alive! What did
you ever bring me up for?"

"I brought you up to talk," said her cousin. "Come over here, and sit
down on the ridge-pole beside me."

The ridge-pole of the Milan Cathedral is of white marble, like all the
rest of the edifice; it is wide and flat, and just the height for a
comfortable seat.

The cousins placed themselves side by side thereon, and Jack lit a
cigarette while he deliberated on just how he should proceed with the
case in hand.

[Illustration]

"Well," he said at last, folding his arms, clearing his throat, crossing
his legs, and in other ways testifying to the solemnity of what was
forthcoming, "I want you to pay a lot of attention to what I'm going to
say, Rosina, for I'm going to talk to you very seriously, and you must
weigh my words well, for once let us get out to sea next week and it
will be too late to ever take any back tacks as to this matter."

She turned her sad eyes towards him; she was looking pale and tired, but
not cross or impatient.

"Go on," she said quietly.

"It's just this: it's four days now since we left Munich, and I can see
that your spirits aren't picking up any; instead, you seem more utterly
done up every day. So I've made up my mind to give you one more chance.
It's this way: you know we're all awfully fond of you and proud of you
and all that, but you know too that no one can ever make you out or
manage you--unless it's me," he added parenthetically; "and you always
do what you please, and you always will do what you please, and the
family share in the game generally consists in having to get you out of