not an hour before, and brought me news of my children, especially my little grandson. What with the welcome news and the unwelcome man, perhaps more than all the heat and the terrible press about my stand, I was overpowered. Dear Lord Meersbrook, who helped Count Riccardini to take me out, said the air about my stand would kill a strong man; so it was no wonder a woman could not bear it."
"He is quite a love, that Meersbrook! what a lucky woman you are to secure such people about you, even when your daughters are absent! But, I say," she added, whispering, "who is this foreigner? did you really know him long since, as people say?"
"He is Count Riccardini, of Castella Riccardini, a most enchanting place, about twenty-five miles from Naples. He married Mr. Granard's only sister, to whom he was the best of husbands. She is dead; so is his only daughter, the Marchioness di Morello, and he is become exceedingly attached to my daughters, it so happening that Mrs. Glentworth greatly resembles the one he has lost."
"And being so much attached to the daughters will very naturally lead to an attachment to their mamma—c'est le comme il faut; if Glentworth knows him, 'tis enough: pray, bring him with you to-night; I have secured your young bearer. Now go; I must not detain you; I know you will bring the charity lots of money."
But the sea roared, and dashed over the banks; the
