er
what; but it amounted to either being, or being supposed to be, their
deliverer. He thus obtained leave to pay his respects at the villa. But
even this gratitude was very measured; they only admitted him at rare
intervals, and for a very brief visit. In fact, it was plain he had
to deal with consummate tacticians, who turned the mystery of their
seclusion and the honor vouchsafed him to an ample profit."

"He told them his name and his rank?"

"Yes; and he owned that they did not seem at all impressed by the
revelation. He describes them as very naughty, very condescending in
manner, _tres grandes dames_, in fact, but unquestionably born to the
class they represent. They never dropped a hint of whence they had come,
or any circumstance of their past lives, but seemed entirely engrossed
by the present, which they spent principally in cultivating the arts;
they both drew admirably, and the young lady had become a most skilful
modellist in clay, her whole day being passed in a studio which they had
just built. I urged him strongly to try and obtain permission for me
to see it, but he assured me it was hopeless,--the request might even
endanger his own position with them.

"I could perceive that, though very much in love, Wahns-dorf was equally
taken with the romance of this adventure. He had never been a hero to
himself before, and he was perfectly enchanted by the novelty of
the sensation. He never affected to say that he had made the least
impression on the young lady's heart; but he gave me to understand that
the nephew of an Emperor need not trouble his head much on that score.
He is a very good-looking, well-mannered, weak boy, who, if he only
reach the age of thirty without some great blunder, will pass for a very
dignified Prince for the rest of his life."

"Did you give him any hopes?"

"Of course, if he only promised to follow my counsels; and as these same
counsels are yet in the oven, he must needs wait for them. In a word, he
is to write to me everything, and I to him; and so we parted."

"I should like to see these people," said Upton, languidly.

"I'm sure of it," rejoined she; "but it is perhaps unnecessary;" and
there was that in the tone which made the words very significant.

"Chelmsford--he 's now Secretary at Turin--might perhaps trace them,"
said he; "he always knows everything of those people who are secrets to
the rest of the world."

"For the present, I am disposed to think it were bett