onsistently evinced to help me when in trouble, and once more I
embarked, this time for the shores of Lombardy, at which place I knew he
had a comfortable situation. With very little difficulty I found the
refreshment establishment at which he worked, and, as I anticipated, he
was extremely pleased to meet me again, and manifested the liveliest joy
at the prospect of being of some help to me. Together we studied the
menu of the day very thoroughly, but could find no mention whatever of
clove kernels, and then, idly looking through some menus of recent date,
handsomely bound together for future reference, we discovered that clove
kernels had been served as recently as the day before. It would be
useless to attempt to describe the despair that took possession of me
when I discovered that I had only missed them by one day. The waiter
excitedly rushed down to the kitchen to see if any had been left over,
but, alas! there was not a single clove kernel to be found in the larder
or anywhere else. On leaving the refreshment rooms I shed the bitterest
tears that had ever fallen from my usually joyful eyes, and on the rocks
by the sea gave way to a mood of the greatest despondency.

'More ashamed than ever to return to the Leanmuffins, I made several
inquiries for any one requiring the services of an amicable, virtuous,
and, at the same time, experienced char-woman, determined to find work
in Lombardy if any were to be had.

'Not receiving satisfactory replies to my inquiries, my good waiter,
true to his kind nature, introduced me to one of his most regular
customers, the Marquis of Lombardy, who had been looking out for some
years for a capable char-woman to superintend the management of his
domestic affairs. Meeting with the approval of the Marquis, I thus
secured a comfortable home, and resolved to forget that I had ever lived
in Sicily.

'Now it happened that the Marquis, being a regular diner at the
restaurant, had partaken of clove kernels on the last occasion they were
served, and three or four must have fallen from his spoon into his
waistcoat pocket at the time, for I overheard his valet repeat to the
housemaid that he had found them therein when brushing his master's
clothes, and that he had presented them to one of the boatmen's
children. Learning the name of the child, not a moment did I lose in
hunting for him high and low, and eventually discovered him playing idly
on the sands with what, I was convinced, were the