l, but he had a sort of sense
of duty which he seemed to fulfil to his own satisfaction by rushing her
about from one watering-place to another, and facilitating her
acquaintance with the young men at each."

"And what was the girl thinking of to allow it?" said Noel.

"The girl was absolutely blind to it,--as ignorant of the world as
a little nun, and apparently quite pleased with her father, who was
avowedly a new acquisition. She must have had good teaching at her
convent; for she sings splendidly and is a pretty fair linguist, too.
I tried her in English, however, and found her so uncertain that my
somewhat limited conversation with her was carried on in French. My
French is nothing to boast of, but it's better than her English."

"What is she?"

"An Italian, with a Swedish mother. She seems awfully foot-loose,
somehow, poor thing; and I hope the marriage which her father suddenly
contrived between her and this young American will turn out well for
her. He's an odd sort of fellow to me, somehow."

"Where does he come from?"

"I don't know,--some misty place in the West somewhere, I believe. I
tried to talk with him a dozen times, but I never got so little out
of a man in my life."

"Was he so deep or merely forbidding?"

"Neither. He was good-tempered enough, and would answer questions;
but he seemed to have nothing to give out. He is a quiet man and
inoffensive, but somehow queer."

"Does he play cards?"

"Not at all."

"Seem to have money?"

"Yes, as far as I could judge, he appears to have enough to do as
he chooses and go where he pleases, though I should say he was not
extravagant. He seems to care too little for things."

"He cares for her, it's to be supposed."

"Yes. He could hardly help that, and yet he showed very little emotion
in his courting days. I used to see them walking together or sitting on
the piazza for hours, and they seemed a strangely silent pair under the
circumstances. I got some key to that mystery, however, when I found
that he doesn't know a word of French or Italian; and I had already
discovered her limitations in English."

"Why, good heavens! how can she know the man then? It is not possible.
And he may turn out to be anything! Do you think her father could have
forced her into this marriage against her will?"

"No, I'm sure he did not. I thought of that, but I'm certain it isn't
so. I think she was in love with the man, as she understood it, in her
convent-bred