t of a cafe by the
Opera House and see the funny people go past--and thence, by Bruges and
Antwerp, to Holland, where nobody could have imagined there were as many
pictures as Thorpe saw with his own weary eyes. There were wonderful old
buildings at Lubeck for Julia's eyes to glisten over, and pictures at
Berlin, Dresden, and Dusseldorf for Alfred.

The assumption existed that the excursion into the Thuringenwald to see
the memorials of Luther was especially for the uncle's benefit, and he
tried solicitously to say or look nothing which might invalidate it.
There were other places in Germany, from Mainz to Munich, which he
remembered best by their different beers. They spent Christmas at
Vienna, where Julia had heard that its observance was peculiarly
insisted upon, and then they saw the Tyrol in its heaviest vesture of
winter snows, and beautiful old Basle, where Alfred was crazier about
Holbein than he had been at Munich over Brouwer. Thorpe looked very
carefully at the paintings of both men, and felt strengthened in his
hopes that when Alfred got a little older he would see that this picture
business was not the thing for a young gentleman with prospects to go
into.

It was at Basle that Thorpe received a letter from London which directly
altered the plans of the party. He had had several other letters
from London which had produced no such effect. Through Semple, he
had followed in outline the unobtrusive campaign to secure a Special
Settlement, and had learned that the Stock Exchange Committee,
apparently without opposition, had granted one for the first week in
February.

Even this news, tremendously important as it was, did not prompt Thorpe
to interfere with the children's projects. There was no longer any point
in remaining away from London; there were, indeed, numerous reasons
for a prompt return. But he was loth to deprive the youngsters of that
descent into smiling, sunlit Italy upon which they had so fondly dwelt
in fancy, and after all Semple could do all that was needful to be done
for another month.

So they went to Basle, and here it was that another kind of letter came.
It was in a strange hand, at once cramped and fluttering, which puzzled
the recipient a good deal; it was a long time before even the signature
unravelled itself. Then he forced himself to decipher it, sentence by
sentence, with a fierce avidity. It was from General Kervick.

The next morning Thorpe astonished his young companions