[Illustration: She paid a visit to the little garden. FRONTISPIECE. ]

WHAT KATY DID NEXT

BY

SUSAN COOLIDGE

This Story is Dedicated

TO

THE MANY LITTLE GIRLS

(SOME OF THEM GROWN TO BE GREAT GIRLS NOW), _Who, during the last twelve years, have begged that somethingmore might be told them about KATY CARR, and what she did afterleaving school. _

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. AN UNEXPECTED GUEST

II. AN INVITATION

III. ROSE AND ROSEBUD

IV. ON THE "SPARTACUS"

V. STORY-BOOK ENGLAND

VI. ACROSS THE CHANNEL

VII. THE PENSION SUISSE

VIII. ON THE TRACK OF ULYSSES

IX. A ROMAN HOLIDAY

X. CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN

XI. NEXT

ILLUSTRATIONS

SHE PAID A VISIT TO THE LITTLE GARDEN

"SHE WAS HAVING THE MEASLES ON THEBACK SHELF OF THE CLOSET, YOU KNOW"

KATY WAS FEEDING GRETCHEN OUT OF A BIGBOWL FULL OF BREAD AND MILK

AMY WAS LEFT IN PEACE WITH HER FAWN

CHAPTER I. 

AN UNEXPECTED GUEST. 

The September sun was glinting cheerfully into a pretty bedroomfurnished with blue. It danced on the glossy hair and bright eyes of twogirls, who sat together hemming ruffles for a white muslin dress. Thehalf-finished skirt of the dress lay on the bed; and as each crispruffle was completed, the girls added it to the snowy heap, which lookedlike a drift of transparent clouds or a pile of foamy white-of-eggbeaten stiff enough to stand alone. 

These girls were Clover and Elsie Carr, and it was Clover's firstevening dress for which they were hemming ruffles. It was nearly twoyears since a certain visit made by Johnnie to Inches Mills, of whichsome of you have read in "Nine Little Goslings;" and more than threesince Clover and Katy had returned home from the boarding-school atHillsover. 

Clover was now eighteen. She was a very small Clover still, but it wouldhave been hard to find anywhere a prettier little maiden than she hadgrown to be. Her skin was so exquisitely fair that her arms and wristsand shoulders, which were round and dimpled like a baby's, seemed cutout of daisies or white rose leaves. Her thick, brown hair waved andcoiled gracefully about her head. Her smile was peculiarly sweet; andthe eyes, always Clover's chief beauty, had still that pathetic lookwhich made them irresistible to tender-hearted people. 

Elsie, who adored Clover, considered her as beautiful as girls inbooks, and was proud to be permitted to hem ruffles for the dress inwhich she was to burst upon the world. Though, as for that, not much"bursting" was possible in Burnet, where tea-parties of a middle-ageddescription, and now and then a mild little dance, represented "gayety"and "society. " Girls "came out" very much, as the sun comes out in themorning, --by slow degrees and gradual approaches, with no particularone moment which could be fixed upon as having been the crisis of thejoyful event. 

"There, " said Elsie, adding another ruffle to the pile on thebed, --"there's the fifth done. It's going to be ever so pretty, I think. I'm glad you had it all white; it's a great deal nicer. "

"Cecy wanted me to have a blue bodice and sash, " said Clover, "but Iwouldn't. Then she tried to persuade me to get a long spray of pinkroses for the skirt. "

"I'm so glad you didn't! Cecy was always crazy about pink roses. I onlywonder she didn't wear them when she was married!"

Yes; the excellent Cecy, who at thirteen had announced her intention todevote her whole life to teaching Sunday School, visiting the poor, andsetting a good example to her more worldly contemporaries, had actuallyforgotten these fine resolutions, and before she was twenty had becomethe wife of Sylvester Slack, a young lawyer in a neighboring town!Cecy's wedding and wedding-clothes, and Cecy's house-furnishing had beenthe great excitement of the preceding year in Burnet; and a freshexcitement had come since in the shape of Cecy's baby, now about twomonths old, and named "Katherine Clover, " after her two friends. Thismade it natural that Cecy and her affairs should still be of interest inthe Carr household; and Johnnie, at the time we write of, was making hera week's visit. 

"She _was_ rather wedded to them, " went on Clover, pursuing the subjectof the pink roses. "She was almost vexed when I wouldn't buy the spray. But it cost lots, and I didn't want it in the least, so I stood firm. Besides, I always said that my first party dress should be plain white. Girls in novels always wear white to their first balls; and freshflowers are a great deal prettier, any way, than artificial. Katy saysshe'll give me some violets to wear. "

"Oh, will she? That will be lovely!" cried the adoring Elsie. "Violetslook just like you, somehow. Oh, Clover, what sort of a dress do youthink I shall have when I grow up and go to parties and things? Won't itbe awfully interesting when you and I go out to choose it?"

Just then the noise of some one running upstairs quickly made thesisters look up from their work. Footsteps are very significant attimes, and these footsteps suggested haste and excitement. 

Another moment, the door opened, and Katy dashed in, calling out, "Papa!--Elsie, Clover, where's papa?"

"He went over the river to see that son of Mr. White's who broke hisleg. Why, what's the matter?" asked Clover. 

"Is somebody hurt?" inquired Elsie, startled at Katy's agitated looks. 

"No, not hurt, but poor Mrs. Ashe is in such trouble. "

Mrs. Ashe, it should be explained, was a widow who had come to Burnetsome months previously, and had taken a pleasant house not far from theCarrs'. She was a pretty, lady-like woman, with a particularly graceful, appealing manner, and very fond of her one child, a little girl. Katyand papa both took a fancy to her at once; and the families had grownneighborly and intimate in a short time, as people occasionally do whencircumstances are favorable. 

"I'll tell you all about it in a minute, " went on Katy. "But first Imust find Alexander, and send him off to meet papa and beg him to hurryhome. " She went to the head of the stairs as she spoke, and called"Debby! Debby!" Debby answered. Katy gave her direction, and then cameback again to the room where the other two were sitting. 

"Now, " she said, speaking more collectedly, "I must explain as fast as Ican, for I have got to go back. You know that Mrs. Ashe's little nephewis here for a visit, don't you?"

"Yes, he came on Saturday. "

"Well, he was ailing all day yesterday, and to-day he is worse, and sheis afraid it is scarlet-fever. Luckily, Amy was spending the day withthe Uphams yesterday, so she scarcely saw the boy at all; and as soonas her mother became alarmed, she sent her out into the garden to play, and hasn't let her come indoors since, so she can't have been exposedto any particular danger yet. I went by the house on my way downstreet, and there sat the poor little thing all alone in the arbor, with her dolly in her lap, looking so disconsolate. I spoke to her overthe fence, and Mrs. Ashe heard my voice, and opened the upstairs windowand called to me. She said Amy had never had the fever, and that thevery idea of her having it frightened her to death. She is such adelicate child, you know. "

"Oh, poor Mrs. Ashe!" cried Clover; "I am so sorry for her! Well, Katy, what did you do?"

"I hope I didn't do wrong, but I offered to bring Amy here. Papa won'tobject, I am almost sure. "

"Why, of course he won't. Well?"

"I am going back now to fetch Amy. Mrs. Ashe is to let Ellen, who hasn'tbeen in the room with the little boy, pack a bagful of clothes and putit out on the steps, and I shall send Alexander for it by and by. Youcan't think how troubled poor Mrs. Ashe was. She couldn't help cryingwhen she said that Amy was all she had left in the world. And I nearlycried too, I was so sorry for her. She was so relieved when I said thatwe would take Amy. You know she has a great deal of confidence in papa. "

"Yes, and in you too. Where will you put Amy to sleep, Katy?"

"What do you think would be best? In Dorry's room?"

"I think she'd better come in here with you, and I'll go into Dorry'sroom. She is used to sleeping with her mother, you know, and she wouldbe lonely if she were left to herself. "

"Perhaps that will be better, only it is a great bother for you, Clovy dear. "

"I don't mind, " responded Clover, cheerfully. "I rather like to changeabout and try a new room once in a while. It's as good as going on ajourney--almost. "

She pushed aside the half-finished dress as she spoke, opened a drawer, took out its contents, and began to carry them across the entry toDorry's room, doing everything with the orderly deliberation that wascharacteristic of whatever Clover did. Her preparations were almostcomplete before Katy returned, bringing with her little Amy Ashe. 

Amy was a tall child of eight, with a frank, happy face, and long lighthair hanging down her back. She looked like the pictures of "Alice inWonderland;" but just at that moment it was a very woful little Aliceindeed that she resembled, for her cheeks were stained with tears andher eyes swollen with recent crying. 

"Why, what is the matter?" cried kind little Clover, taking Amy in herarms, and giving her a great hug. "Aren't you glad that you are comingto make us a visit? We are. "

"Mamma didn't kiss me for good-by, " sobbed the little girl. "She didn'tcome downstairs at all. She just put her head out of the window andsaid, 'Good-by; Amy, be very good, and don't make Miss Carr anytrouble, ' and then she went away. I never went anywhere before withoutkissing mamma for good-by. "

"Mamma was afraid to kiss you for fear she might give you the fever, "explained Katy, taking her turn as a comforter. "It wasn't because sheforgot. She felt worse about it than you did, I imagine. You know thething she cares most for is that you shall not be ill as your cousinWalter is. She would rather do anything than have that happen. As soonas he gets well she will kiss you dozens of times, see if she doesn't. Meanwhile, she says in this note that you must write her a little letterevery day, and she will hang a basket by a string out of the window, andyou and I will go and drop the letters into the basket, and stand by thegate and see her pull it up. That will be funny, won't it? We will playthat you are my little girl, and that you have a real mamma and amake-believe mamma. "

"Shall I sleep with you?" demanded Amy, "Yes, in that bed over there. "

"It's a pretty bed, " pronounced Amy after examining it gravely for amoment. "Will you tell me a story every morning?"

[Illustration: "She was having the measles on the back shelf of thecloset, you know. "]

"If you don't wake me up too early. My stories are always sleepytill seven o'clock. Let us see what Ellen has packed in that bag, and then I'll give you some drawers of your own, and we will put thethings away. "

The bag was full of neat little frocks and underclothes stuffed hastilyin all together. Katy took them out, smoothing the folds, and crimpingthe tumbled ruffles with her fingers. As she lifted the last skirt, Amy, with a cry of joy, pounced on something that lay beneath it. 

"It is Maria Matilda, " she said, "I'm glad of that. I thought Ellenwould forget her, and the poor child wouldn't know what to do with meand her little sister not coming to see her for so long. She was havingthe measles on the back shelf of the closet, you know, and nobody wouldhave heard her if she had cried ever so loud. "

"What a pretty face she has!" said Katy, taking the doll out ofAmy's hands. 

"Yes, but not so pretty as Mabel. Miss Upham says that Mabel is theprettiest child she ever saw. Look, Miss Clover, " lifting the other dollfrom the table where she had laid it; "hasn't she got _sweet_ eyes?She's older than Maria Matilda, and she knows a great deal more. She'sbegun on French verbs!"

"Not really! Which ones?"

"Oh, only 'J'aime, tu aimes, il aime, ' you know, --the same that ourclass is learning at school. She hasn't tried any but that. Sometimesshe says it quite nicely, but sometimes she's very stupid, and I have toscold her. " Amy had quite recovered her spirits by this time. 

"Are these the only dolls you have?"

"Oh, please don't call them _that!_" urged Amy. "It hurts their feelingsdreadfully. I never let them know that they are dolls. They think thatthey are real children, only sometimes when they are very bad I use theword for a punishment. I've got several other children. There's oldRagazza. My uncle named her, and she's made of rag, but she has such badrheumatism that I don't play with her any longer; I just give hermedicine. Then there's Effie Deans, she's only got one leg; and Mopsathe Fairy, she's a tiny one made out of china; and Peg ofLinkinvaddy, --but she don't count, for she's all come to pieces. "

"What very queer names your children have!" said Elsie, who had come induring the enumeration. 

"Yes; Uncle Ned named them. He's a very funny uncle, but he's nice. He'salways so much interested in my children. "

"There's papa now!" cried Katy; and she ran downstairs to meet him. 

"Did I do right?" she asked anxiously after she had told her story. 

"Yes, my dear, perfectly right, " replied Dr. Carr. "I only hope Amy wastaken away in time. I will go round at once to see Mrs. Ashe and theboy; and, Katy, keep away from me when I come back, and keep the othersaway, till I have changed my coat. "

It is odd how soon and how easily human beings accustom themselves to anew condition of things. When sudden illness comes, or sudden sorrow, ora house is burned up, or blown down by a tornado, there are a few hoursor days of confusion and bewilderment, and then people gather up theirwits and their courage and set to work to repair damages. They clearaway ruins, plant, rebuild, very much as ants whose hill has beentrodden upon, after running wildly about for a little while, begin alltogether to reconstruct the tiny cone of sand which is so important intheir eyes. In a very short time the changes which at first seem so sadand strange become accustomed and matter-of-course things which nolonger surprise us. 

It seemed to the Carrs after a few days as if they had always had Amy inthe house with them. Papa's daily visit to the sick-room, theiravoidance of him till after he had "changed his coat, " Amy's lessons andgames of play, her dressing and undressing, the walks with themake-believe mamma, the dropping of notes into the little basket, seemedpart of a system of things which had been going on for a long, longtime, and which everybody would miss should they suddenly stop. 

But they by no means suddenly stopped. Little Walter Ashe's case provedto be rather a severe one; and after he had begun to mend, he caughtcold somehow and was taken worse again. There were some serioussymptoms, and for a few days Dr. Carr did not feel sure how things wouldturn. He did not speak of his anxiety at home, but kept silence and acheerful face, as doctors know how to do. Only Katy, who was moreintimate with her father than the rest, guessed that things were goinggravely at the other house, and she was too well trained to askquestions. The threatening symptoms passed off, however, and littleWalter slowly got better; but it was a long convalescence, and Mrs. Ashegrew thin and pale before he began to look rosy. There was no one onwhom she could devolve the charge of the child. His mother was dead; hisfather, an overworked business man, had barely time to run up once aweek to see about him; there was no one at his home but a housekeeper, in whom Mrs. Ashe had not full confidence. So the good aunt deniedherself the sight of her own child, and devoted her strength and time toWalter; and nearly two months passed, and still little Amy remained atDr. Carr's. 

She was entirely happy there. She had grown very fond of Katy, and wasperfectly at home with the others. Phil and Johnnie, who had returnedfrom her visit to Cecy, were by no means too old or too proud to beplay-fellows to a child of eight; and with all the older members of thefamily Amy was a chosen pet. Debby baked turnovers, and twisted cinnamoncakes into all sorts of fantastic shapes to please her; Alexander wouldlet her drive if she happened to sit on the front seat of the carryall;Dr. Carr was seldom so tired that he could not tell her a story, --andnobody told such nice stories as Dr. Carr, Amy thought; Elsie inventedall manner of charming games for the hour before bedtime; Clover madewonderful capes and bonnets for Mabel and Maria Matilda; and Katy--Katydid all sorts of things. 

Katy had a peculiar gift with children which is not easy to define. Somepeople possess it, and some do not; it cannot be learned, it comes bynature. She was bright and firm and equable all at once. She both amusedand influenced them. There was something about her which excited thechildish imagination, and always they felt her sympathy. Amy was atractable child, and intelligent beyond her age, but she was never quiteso good with any one as with Katy. She followed her about like a littlelover; she lavished upon her certain special words and caresses whichshe gave to no one else; and would kneel on her lap, patting Katy'sshoulders with her soft hand, and cooing up into her face like a happydove, for a half-hour together. Katy laughed at these demonstrations, but they pleased her very much. She loved to be loved, as allaffectionate people do, but most of all to be loved by a child. 

At last, the long convalescence ended, Walter was carried away to hisfather, with every possible precaution against fatigue and exposure, andan army of workpeople was turned into Mrs. Ashe's house. Plaster wasscraped and painted, wall-papers torn down, mattresses made over, andclothing burned. At last Dr. Carr pronounced the premises in a sanitarycondition, and Mrs. Ashe sent for her little girl to come home again. 

Amy was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing her mother; but at the lastmoment she clung to Katy and cried as if her heart would break. 

"I want you too, " she said. "Oh, if Dr. Carr would only let you come andlive with me and mamma, I should be so happy! I shall be so lone-ly!"

"Nonsense!" cried Clover. "Lonely with mamma, and those poor children ofyours who have been wondering all these weeks what has become of you!They'll want a great deal of attention at first, I am sure; medicine andnew clothes and whippings, --all manner of things. You remember Ipromised to make a dress for Effie Deans out of that blue and brownplaid like Johnnie's balmoral. I mean to begin it to-morrow. "

"Oh, will you?"--forgetting her grief--"that will be lovely. The skirtneedn't be _very_ full, you know. Effie doesn't walk much, because ofonly having one leg. She will be _so_ pleased, for she hasn't had a newdress I don't know when. "

Consoled by the prospect of Effie's satisfaction, Amy departed quitecheerfully, and Mrs. Ashe was spared the pain of seeing her only childin tears on the first evening of their reunion. But Amy talked soconstantly of Katy, and seemed to love her so much, that it put a planinto her mother's head which led to important results, as the nextchapter will show. 

CHAPTER II. 

AN INVITATION. 

It is a curious fact, and makes life very interesting, that, generallyspeaking, none of us have any expectation that things are going tohappen till the very moment when they do happen. We wake up some morningwith no idea that a great happiness is at hand, and before night it hascome, and all the world is changed for us; or we wake bright andcheerful, with never a guess that clouds of sorrow are lowering in oursky, to put all the sunshine out for a while, and before noon all isdark. Nothing whispers of either the joy or the grief. No instinct bidsus to delay or to hasten the opening of the letter or telegram, or thelifting of the latch of the door at which stands the messenger of goodor ill. And because it may be, and often is, happy tidings that come, and joyful things which happen, each fresh day as it dawns upon us islike an unread story, full of possible interest and adventure, to bemade ours as soon as we have cut the pages and begun to read. 

Nothing whispered to Katy Carr, as she sat at the window mending a longrent in Johnnie's school coat, and saw Mrs. Ashe come in at the sidegate and ring the office bell, that the visit had any specialsignificance for her. Mrs. Ashe often did come to the office to consultDr. Carr. Amy might not be quite well, Katy thought, or there might be aletter with something about Walter in it, or perhaps matters had gonewrong at the house, where paperers and painters were still at work. Soshe went calmly on with her darning, drawing the "ravelling, " with whichher needle was threaded, carefully in and out, and taking nice evenstitches without one prophetic thrill or tremor; while, if only shecould have looked through the two walls and two doors which separatedthe room in which she sat from the office, and have heard what Mrs. Ashewas saying, the school coat would have been thrown to the winds, and forall her tall stature and propriety, she would have been skipping withdelight and astonishment. For Mrs. Ashe was asking papa to let her dothe very thing of all others that she most longed to do; she was askinghim to let Katy go with her to Europe!

"I am not very well, " she told the Doctor. "I got tired and run downwhile Walter was ill, and I don't seem to throw it off as I hoped Ishould. I feel as if a change would do me good. Don't you think soyourself?"

"Yes, I do, " Dr. Carr admitted. 

"This idea of Europe is not altogether a new one, " continued Mrs. Ashe. "I have always meant to go some time, and have put it off, partlybecause I dreaded going alone, and didn't know anybody whom I exactlywanted to take with me. But if you will let me have Katy, Dr. Carr, itwill settle all my difficulties. Amy loves her dearly, and so do I; sheis just the companion I need; if I have her with me, I sha'n't be afraidof anything. I do hope you will consent. "

"How long do you mean to be away?" asked Dr. Carr, divided betweenpleasure at these compliments to Katy and dismay at the idea oflosing her. 

"About a year, I think. My plans are rather vague as yet; but my ideawas to spend a few weeks in Scotland and England first, --I have somecousins in London who will be good to us; and an old friend of minemarried a gentleman who lives on the Isle of Wight; perhaps we might gothere. Then we could cross over to France and visit Paris and a fewother places; and before it gets cold go down to Nice, and from there toItaly. Katy would like to see Italy. Don't you think so?"

"I dare say she would, " said Dr. Carr, with a smile. "She would be aqueer girl if she didn't. "

"There is one reason why I thought Italy would be particularly pleasantthis winter for me and for her too, " went on Mrs. Ashe; "and that is, because my brother will be there. He is a lieutenant in the navy, youknow, and his ship, the 'Natchitoches, ' is one of the Mediterraneansquadron. They will be in Naples by and by, and if we were there at thesame time we should have Ned to go about with; and he would take us tothe receptions on the frigate, and all that, which would be a nicechance for Katy. Then toward spring I should like to go to Florence andVenice, and visit the Italian lakes and Switzerland in the early summer. But all this depends on your letting Katy go. If you decide against it, I shall give the whole thing up. But you won't decide againstit, "--coaxingly, --"you will be kinder than that. I will take the bestpossible care of her, and do all I can to make her happy, if only youwill consent to lend her to me; and I shall consider it _such_ a favor. And it is to cost you nothing. You understand, Doctor, she is to be myguest all through. That is a point I want to make clear in the outset;for she goes for my sake, and I cannot take her on any other conditions. Now, Dr. Carr, please, please! I am sure you won't deny me, when I haveso set my heart upon having her. "

Mrs. Ashe was very pretty and persuasive, but still Dr. Carr hesitated. To send Katy for a year's pleasuring in Europe was a thing that hadnever occurred to his mind as possible. The cost alone would haveprevented; for country doctors with six children are not apt to be richmen, even in the limited and old-fashioned construction of the word"wealth. " It seemed equally impossible to let her go at Mrs. Ashe'sexpense; at the same time, the chance was such a good one, and Mrs. Asheso much in earnest and so urgent, that it was difficult to refuse pointblank. He finally consented to take time for consideration before makinghis decision. 

"I will talk it over with Katy, " he said. "The child ought to have a sayin the matter; and whatever we decide, you must let me thank you in hername as well as my own for your great kindness in proposing it. "

"Doctor, I'm not kind at all, and I don't want to be thanked. My desireto take Katy with me to Europe is purely selfish. I am a lonely person, "she went on; "I have no mother or sister, and no cousins of my own age. My brother's profession keeps him at sea; I scarcely ever see him. Ihave no one but a couple of old aunts, too feeble in health to travelwith me or to be counted on in case of any emergency. You see, I am areal case for pity. "

Mrs. Ashe spoke gayly, but her brown eyes were dim with tears as sheended her little appeal. Dr. Carr, who was soft-hearted where women wereconcerned, was touched. Perhaps his face showed it, for Mrs. Ashe addedin a more hopeful tone, --

"But I won't tease any more. I know you will not refuse me unless youthink it right and necessary; and, " she continued mischievously, "I havegreat faith in Katy as an ally. I am pretty sure that she will say thatshe wants to go. "

And indeed Katy's cry of delight when the plan was proposed to her saidthat sufficiently, without need of further explanation. To go to Europefor a year with Mrs. Ashe and Amy seemed simply too delightful to betrue. All the things she had heard about and read about--cathedrals, pictures, Alpine peaks, famous places, famous people--came rushing intoher mind in a sort of bewildering tide as dazzling as it wasoverwhelming. Dr. Carr's objections, his reluctance to part with her, melted before the radiance of her satisfaction. He had no idea thatKaty would care so much about it. After all, it was a greatchance, --perhaps the only one of the sort that she would ever have. Mrs. Ashe could well afford to give Katy this treat, he knew; and itwas quite true what she said, that it was a favor to her as well as toKaty. This train of reasoning led to its natural results. Dr. Carrbegan to waver in his mind. 

But, the first excitement over, Katy's second thoughts were more soberones. How could papa manage without her for a whole year, she askedherself. He would miss her, she well knew, and might not the charge ofthe house be too much for Clover? The preserves were almost all made, that was one comfort; but there were the winter clothes to be seen to;Dorry needed new flannels, Elsie's dresses must be altered over forJohnnie, --there were cucumbers to pickle, the coal to order! A host ofhousewifely cares began to troop through Katy's mind, and a littlepucker came into her forehead, and a worried look across the face whichhad been so bright a few minutes before. Strange to say, it was thatlittle pucker and the look of worry which decided Dr. Carr. 

"She is only twenty-one, " he reflected; "hardly out of childhood. Idon't want her to settle into an anxious, drudging state and lose heryouth with caring for us all. She shall go; though how we are to managewithout her I don't see. Little Clover will have to come to the fore, and show what sort of stuff there is in her. "

"Little Clover" came gallantly "to the fore" when the first shock ofsurprise was over, and she had relieved her mind with one long privatecry over having to do without Katy for a year. Then she wiped her eyes, and began to revel unselfishly in the idea of her sister's having sogreat a treat. Anything and everything seemed possible to secure it forher; and she made light of all Katy's many anxieties and apprehensions. 

"My dear child, I know a flannel undershirt when I see one, just as wellas you do, " she declared. "Tucks in Johnnie's dress, forsooth! why, ofcourse. Ripping out a tuck doesn't require any superhuman ingenuity!Give me your scissors, and I'll show you at once. Quince marmalade?Debby can make that. Hers is about as good as yours; and if it wasn't, what should we care, as long as you are ascending Mont Blanc, andhob-nobbing with Michael Angelo and the crowned heads of Europe? I'llmake the spiced peaches! I'll order the kindling! And if there evercomes a time when I feel lost and can't manage without advice, I'll goacross to Mrs. Hall. Don't worry about us. We shall get on happily andeasily; in fact, I shouldn't be surprised if I developed such a turn forhousekeeping, that when you come back the family refused to change, andyou had just to sit for the rest of your life and twirl your thumbs andwatch me do it! Wouldn't that be fine?" and Clover laughed merrily. "So, Katy darling, cast that shadow from your brow, and look as a girl oughtto look who's going to Europe. Why, if it were I who were going, Ishould simply stand on my head every moment of the time!"

"Not a very convenient position for packing, " said Katy, smiling. 

"Yes, it is, if you just turn your trunk upside down! When I think ofall the delightful things you are going to do, I can hardly sit still. I_love_ Mrs. Ashe for inviting you. "

"So do I, " said Katy, soberly. "It was the kindest thing! I can't thinkwhy she did it. "

"Well, I can, " replied Clover, always ready to defend Katy even againstherself. "She did it because she wanted you, and she wanted you becauseyou are the dearest old thing in the world, and the nicest to haveabout. You needn't say you're not, for you are! Now, Katy, don't wasteanother thought on such miserable things as pickles and undershirts. Weshall get along perfectly well, I do assure you. Just fix your mindinstead on the dome of St. Peter's, or try to fancy how you'll feel thefirst time you step into a gondola or see the Mediterranean. There willbe a moment! I feel a forty-horse power of housekeeping developingwithin me; and what fun it will be to get your letters! We shall fetchout the Encyclopaedia and the big Atlas and the 'History of ModernEurope, ' and read all about everything you see and all the places yougo to; and it will be as good as a lesson in geography and history andpolitical economy all combined, only a great deal more interesting! Weshall stick out all over with knowledge before you come back; and thismakes it a plain duty to go, if it were only for our sakes. " With thesezealous promises, Katy was forced to be content. Indeed, contentmentwas not difficult with such a prospect of delight before her. When onceher little anxieties had been laid aside, the idea of the comingjourney grew in pleasantness every moment. Night after night she andpapa and the children pored over maps and made out schemes for traveland sight-seeing, every one of which was likely to be discarded as soonas the real journey began. But they didn't know that, and it made noreal difference. Such schemes are the preliminary joys of travel, andit doesn't signify that they come to nothing after they have servedtheir purpose. 

Katy learned a great deal while thus talking over what she was to seeand do. She read every scrap she could lay her hand on which related toRome or Florence or Venice or London. The driest details had a charm forher now that she was likely to see the real places. She went about withscraps of paper in her pocket, on which were written such things asthese: "Forum. When built? By whom built? More than one?" "What does_Cenacola_ mean?" "Cecilia Metella. Who was she?" "Find out about SaintCatherine of Siena. " "Who was Beatrice Cenci?" How she wished that shehad studied harder and more carefully before this wonderful chance cameto her. People always wish this when they are starting for Europe; andthey wish it more and more after they get there, and realize of whatvalue exact ideas and information and a fuller knowledge of the foreignlanguages are to all travellers; how they add to the charm of everythingseen, and enhance the ease of everything done. 

All Burnet took an interest in Katy's plans, and almost everybody hadsome sort of advice or help, or some little gift to offer. Old Mrs. Worrett, who, though fatter than ever, still retained the power oflocomotion, drove in from Conic Section in her roomy carryall with thepresent of a rather obsolete copy of "Murray's Guide, " in faded redcovers, which her father had used in his youth, and which she was sureKaty would find convenient; also a bottle of Brown's Jamaica Ginger, incase of sea-sickness. Debby's sister-in-law brought a bundle of driedchamomile for the same purpose. Some one had told her it was the"handiest thing in the world to take along with you on them steamboats. "Cecy sent a wonderful old-gold and scarlet contrivance to hang on thewall of the stateroom. There were pockets for watches, and pockets formedicines, and pockets for handkerchief and hairpins, --in short, therewere pockets for everything; besides a pincushion with "Bon Voyage" inrows of shining pins, a bottle of eau-de-cologne, a cake of soap, and ahammer and tacks to nail the whole up with. Mrs. Hall's gift was a warmand very pretty woollen wrapper of dark blue flannel, with a pair ofsoft knitted slippers to match. Old Mr. Worrett sent a note of advice, recommending Katy to take a quinine pill every day that she was away, never to stay out late, because the dews "over there" were said to beunwholesome, and on no account to drink a drop of water which had notbeen boiled. 

From Cousin Helen came a delightful travelling-bag, light and strong atonce, and fitted up with all manner of nice little conveniences. MissInches sent a "History of Europe" in five fat volumes, which was soheavy that it had to be left at home. In fact, a good many of Katy'spresents had to be left at home, including a bronze paper-weight in theshape of a griffin, a large pair of brass screw candlesticks, and anormolu inkstand with a pen-rest attached, which weighed at least a poundand a half. These Katy laid aside to enjoy after her return. Mrs. Asheand Cousin Helen had both warned her of the inconvenient consequences ofweight in baggage; and by their advice she had limited herself to asingle trunk of moderate size, besides a little flat valise for use inher stateroom. 

Clover's gift was a set of blank books for notes, journals, etc. In oneof these, Katy made out a list of "Things I must see, " "Things I mustdo, " "Things I would like to see, " "Things I would like to do. " Anothershe devoted to various good shopping addresses which had been given her;for though she did not expect to do any shopping herself, she thoughtMrs. Ashe might find them useful. Katy's ideas were still so simple andunworldly, and her experience of life so small, that it had not occurredto her how very tantalizing it might be to stand in front of shopwindows full of delightful things and not be able to buy any of them. She was accordingly overpowered with surprise, gratitude, and the senseof sudden wealth, when about a week before the start her father gave herthree little thin strips of paper, which he told her were circularnotes, and worth a hundred dollars apiece. He also gave her five Englishsovereigns. 

"Those are for immediate use, " he said. "Put the notes away carefully, and don't lose them. You had better have them cashed one at a time asyou require them. Mrs. Ashe will explain how. You will need a gown or sobefore you come back, and you'll want to buy some photographs and so on, and there will be fees--"

"But, papa, " protested Katy, opening wide her candid eyes, "I didn'texpect you to give me any money, and I'm afraid you are giving me toomuch. Do you think you can afford it? Really and truly, I don't want tobuy things. I shall see everything, you know, and that's enough. "

Her father only laughed. 

"You'll be wiser and greedier before the year is out, my dear, " hereplied. "Three hundred dollars won't go far, as you'll find. But it'sall I can spare, and I trust you to keep within it, and not come homewith any long bills for me to pay. "

"Papa! I should think not!" cried Katy, with unsophisticated horror. 

One very interesting thing was to happen before they sailed, the thoughtof which helped both Katy and Clover through the last hard days, whenthe preparations were nearly complete, and the family had leisure tofeel dull and out of spirits. Katy was to make Rose Red a visit. 

Rose had by no means been idle during the three years and a half whichhad elapsed since they all parted at Hillsover, and during which thegirls had not seen her. In fact, she had made more out of the time thanany of the rest of them, for she had been engaged for eighteen months, had been married, and was now keeping house near Boston with a littleRose of her own, who, she wrote to Clover, was a perfect angel, and moredelicious than words could say! Mrs. Ashe had taken passage in the"Spartacus, " sailing from Boston; and it was arranged that Katy shouldspend the last two days before sailing, with Rose, while Mrs. Ashe andAmy visited an old aunt in Hingham. To see Rose in her own home, andRose's husband, and Rose's baby, was only next in interest to seeingEurope. None of the changes in her lot seemed to have changed herparticularly, to judge by the letter she sent in reply to Katy'sannouncing her plans, which letter ran as follows:--

"LONGWOOD, September 20. 

"My dearest child, --Your note made me dance with delight. I stood on myhead waving my heels wildly to the breeze till Deniston thought I mustbe taken suddenly mad; but when I explained he did the same. It is tooenchanting, the whole of it. I put it at the head of all the nice thingsthat ever happened, except my baby. Write the moment you get this bywhat train you expect to reach Boston, and when you roll into thestation you will behold two forms, one tall and stalwart, the othershort and fatsome, waiting for you. They will be those of Deniston andmyself. Deniston is not beautiful, but he is good, and he is prepared to_adore_ you. The baby is both good and beautiful, and you will adoreher. I am neither; but you know all about me, and I always did adore youand always shall. I am going out this moment to the butcher's to order acalf fatted for your special behoof; and he shall be slain and made intocutlets the moment I hear from you. My funny little house, which isquite a dear little house too, assumes a new interest in my eyes fromthe fact that you so soon are to see it. It is somewhat queer, as youmight know my house would be; but I think you will like it. 

"I saw Silvery Mary the other day and told her you were coming. She isthe same mouse as ever. I shall ask her and some of the other girls tocome out to lunch on one of your days. Good-by, with a hundred and fiftykisses to Clovy and the rest. 

"Your loving

"ROSE RED. "

"She never signs herself Browne, I observe, " said Clover, as shefinished the letter. 

"Oh, Rose Red Browne would sound too funny. Rose Red she must stay tillthe end of the chapter; no other name could suit her half so well, and Ican't imagine her being called anything else. What fun it will be to seeher and little Rose!"

"And Deniston Browne, " put in Clover. 

"Somehow I find it rather hard to take in the fact that there is aDeniston Browne, " observed Katy. 

"It will be easier after you have seen him, perhaps. "

The last day came, as last days will. Katy's trunk, most carefullyand exactly packed by the united efforts of the family, stood in thehall, locked and strapped, not to be opened again till the partyreached London. This fact gave it a certain awful interest in theeyes of Phil and Johnnie, and even Elsie gazed upon it with respect. The little valise was also ready; and Dorry, the neat-handed, hadpainted a red star on both ends of both it and the trunk, that theymight be easily picked from among a heap of luggage. He now proceededto prepare and paste on two square cards, labelled respectively, "Hold" and "State-room. " Mrs. Hall had told them that this was thecorrect thing to do. 

Mrs. Ashe had been full of business likewise in putting her house torights for a family who had rented it for the time of her absence, andKaty and Clover had taken a good many hours from their own preparationsto help her. All was done at last; and one bright morning in October, Katy stood on the wharf with her family about her, and a lump in herthroat which made it difficult to speak to any of them. She stood sovery still and said so very little, that a bystander not acquainted withthe circumstances might have dubbed her "unfeeling;" while the fact wasthat she was feeling too much!

The first bell rang. Katy kissed everybody quietly and went on boardwith her father. Her parting from him, hardest of all, took place in themidst of a crowd of people; then he had to leave her, and as the wheelsbegan to revolve she went out on the side deck to have a last glimpse ofthe home faces. There they were: Elsie crying tumultuously, with herhead on papa's coat-sleeve; John laughing, or trying to laugh, with bigtears running down her cheeks the while; and brave little Clover wavingher handkerchief encouragingly, but with a very sober look on her face. Katy's heart went out to the little group with a sudden passion ofregret and yearning. Why had she said she would go? What was all Europein comparison with what she was leaving? Life was so short, how couldshe take a whole year out of it to spend away from the people she lovedbest? If it had been left to her to choose, I think she would have flownback to the shore then and there, and given up the journey, I also thinkshe would have been heartily sorry a little later, had she done so. 

But it was not left for her to choose. Already the throb of the engineswas growing more regular and the distance widening between the greatboat and the wharf. Gradually the dear faces faded into distance; andafter watching till the flutter of Clover's handkerchief became anundistinguishable speck, Katy went to the cabin with a heavy heart. Butthere were Mrs. Ashe and Amy, inclined to be homesick also, and in needof cheering; and Katy, as she tried to brighten them, gradually grewbright herself, and recovered her hopeful spirits. Burnet pulled lessstrongly as it got farther away, and Europe beckoned more brilliantlynow that they were fairly embarked on their journey. The sun shone, thelake was a beautiful, dazzling blue, and Katy said to herself, "Afterall, a year is not very long, and how happy I am going to be!"

CHAPTER III. 

ROSE AND ROSEBUD. 

Thirty-six hours later the Albany train, running smoothly across thegreen levels beyond the Mill Dam, brought the travellers to Boston. 

Katy looked eagerly from the window for her first glimpse of the city ofwhich she had heard so much. "Dear little Boston! How nice it is to seeit again!" she heard a lady behind her say; but why it should be called"little Boston" she could not imagine. Seen from the train, it lookedlarge, imposing, and very picturesque, after flat Burnet with its onebank down to the edge of the lake. She studied the towers, steeples, andred roofs crowding each other up the slopes of the Tri-Mountain, and thebig State House dome crowning all, and made up her mind that she likedthe looks of it better than any other city she had ever seen. 

The train slackened its speed, ran for a few moments between rows oftall, shabby brick walls, and with a long, final screech of its whistlecame to halt in the station-house. Every one made a simultaneous rushfor the door; and Katy and Mrs. Ashe, waiting to collect their books andbags, found themselves wedged into their seats and unable to get out. Itwas a confusing moment, and not comfortable; such moments never are. 

But the discomfort brightened into a sense of relief as, looking out ofthe window, Katy caught sight of a face exactly opposite, which hadevidently caught sight of her, --a fresh, pretty face, with light, wavinghair, pink cheeks all a-dimple, and eyes which shone with laughter andwelcome. It was Rose herself, not a bit changed during the years sincethey parted. A tall young man stood beside her, who must, of course, beher husband, Deniston Browne. 

"There is Rose Red, " cried Katy to Mrs. Ashe. "Oh, doesn't she look dearand natural? Do wait and let me introduce you. I want you to know her. "

But the train had come in a little behind time, and Mrs. Ashe wasafraid of missing the Hingham boat; so she only took a hasty peepfrom the window at Rose, pronounced her to be charming-looking, kissed Katy hurriedly, reminded her that they must be on the steamerpunctually at twelve o'clock the following Saturday, and was gone, with Amy beside her; so that Katy, following last of all theslow-moving line of passengers, stepped all alone down from theplatform into the arms of Rose Red. 

"You darling!" was Rose's first greeting. "I began to think you meantto spend the night in the car, you were so long in getting out. Well, how perfectly lovely this is! Deniston, here is Katy; Katy, this ismy husband. "

Rose looked about fifteen as she spoke, and so absurdly young to have a"husband, " that Katy could not help laughing as she shook hands with"Deniston;" and his own eyes twinkled with fun and evident recognitionof the same joke. He was a tall young man, with a pleasant, "steady"face, and seemed to be infinitely amused, in a quiet way, witheverything which his wife said and did. 

"Let us make haste and get out of this hole, " went on Rose. "I canscarcely see for the smoke. Deniston, dear, please find the cab, andhave Katy's luggage put on it. I am wild to get her home, and exhibitbaby before she chews up her new sash or does something else that isdreadful, to spoil her looks. I left her sitting in state, Katy, withall her best clothes on, waiting to be made known to you. "

"My large trunk is to go straight to the steamer, " explained Katy, asshe gave her checks to Mr. Browne. "I only want the little one taken outto Longwood, please. "

"Now, this is cosey, " remarked Rose, when they were seated in the cabwith Katy's bag at their feet. "Deniston, my love, I wish you were goingout with us. There's a nice little bench here all ready and vacant, which is just suited to a man of your inches. You won't? Well, come inthe early train, then. Don't forget. --Now, isn't he just as nice as Itold you he was?" she demanded, the moment the cab began to move. 

"He looks very nice indeed, as far as I can judge in three minutes anda quarter. "

"My dear, it ought not to take anybody of ordinary discernment a minuteand a quarter to perceive that he is simply the dearest fellow that everlived, " said Rose. "I discovered it three seconds after I first beheldhim, and was desperately in love with him before he had fairly finishedhis first bow after introduction. "

"And was he equally prompt?" asked Katy. 

"He says so, " replied Rose, with a pretty blush. "But then, you know, hecould hardly say less after such a frank confession on my part. It is nomore than decent of him to make believe, even if it is not true. Now, Katy, look at Boston, and see if you don't _love_ it!"

The cab had now turned into Boylston Street; and on the right hand laythe Common, green as summer after the autumn rains, with the elm archesleafy still. Long, slant beams of afternoon sun were filtering throughthe boughs and falling across the turf and the paths, where people werewalking and sitting, and children and babies playing together. It was adelightful scene; and Katy received an impression of space and cheer andair and freshness, which ever after was associated with her recollectionof Boston. 

Rose was quite satisfied with her raptures as they drove through CharlesStreet, between the Common and the Public Garden, all ablaze with autumnflowers, and down the length of Beacon Street with the blue bay shiningbetween the handsome houses on the water side. Every vestibule andbay-window was gay with potted plants and flower-boxes; and a concourseof happy-looking people, on foot, on horseback, and in carriages, wassurging to and fro like an equal, prosperous tide, while the sunlightglorified all. 

"'Boston shows a soft Venetian side, '" quoted Katy, after a while. "Iknow now what Mr. Lowell meant when he wrote that. I don't believe thereis a more beautiful place in the world. "

"Why, of course there isn't, " retorted Rose, who was a most devotedlittle Bostonian, in spite of the fact that she had lived in Washingtonnearly all her life. "I've not seen much beside, to be sure, but that isno matter; I know it is true. It is the dream of my life to come intothe city to live. I don't care what part I live in, --West End, SouthEnd, North End; it's all one to me, so long as it is Boston!"

"But don't you like Longwood?" asked Katy, looking out admiringly at thepretty places set amid vines and shrubberies, which they were nowpassing. "It looks so very pretty and pleasant. "

"Yes, it's well enough for any one who has a taste for naturalbeauties, " replied Rose. "I haven't; I never had. There is nothing Ihate so much as Nature! I'm a born cockney. I'd rather live in one roomover Jordan and Marsh's, and see the world wag past, than be the ownerof the most romantic villa that ever was built, I don't care where itmay be situated. "

The cab now turned in at a gate and followed a curving drive borderedwith trees to a pretty stone house with a porch embowered with Virginiacreepers, before which it stopped. 

"Here we are!" cried Rose, springing out. "Now, Katy, you mustn't eventake time to sit down before I show you the dearest baby that ever wassent to this sinful earth. Here, let me take your bag; come straightupstairs, and I will exhibit her to you. "

They ran up accordingly, and Rose took Katy into a large sunny nursery, where, tied with pink ribbon into a little basket-chair and watched overby a pretty young nurse, sat a dear, fat, fair baby, so exactly likeRose in miniature that no one could possibly have mistaken therelationship. The baby began to laugh and coo as soon as it caught sightof its gay little mother, and exhibited just such another dimple ashers, in the middle of a pink cheek. Katy was enchanted. 

"Oh, you darling!" she said. "Would she come to me, do you think, Rose?"

"Why, of course she shall, " replied Rose, picking up the baby as if shehad been a pillow, and stuffing her into Katy's arms head first. "Now, just look at her, and tell me if ever you saw anything so enchanting inthe whole course of your life before? Isn't she big? Isn't shebeautiful? Isn't she good? Just see her little hands and her hair! Shenever cries except when it is clearly her duty to cry. See her turn herhead to look at me! Oh, you angel!" And seizing the long-suffering baby, she smothered it with kisses. "I never, never, never did see anything sosweet. Smell her, Katy! Doesn't she smell like heaven?"

Little Rose was indeed a delicious baby, all dimples and good-humor andviolet-powder, with a skin as soft as a lily's leaf, and a happycapacity for allowing herself to be petted and cuddled withoutremonstrance. Katy wanted to hold her all the time; but this Rose wouldby no means permit; in fact, I may as well say at once that the twogirls spent a great part of their time during the visit in fighting forthe possession of the baby, who looked on at the struggle, and smiled onthe victor, whichever it happened to be, with all the philosophiccomposure of Helen of Troy. She was so soft and sunny and equable, thatit was no more trouble to care for and amuse her than if she had been abird or a kitten; and, as Rose remarked, it was "ten times better fun. "

"I was never allowed as much doll as I wanted in my infancy, " she said. "I suppose I tore them to pieces too soon; and they couldn't give me tinones to play with, as they did wash-bowls when I broke the china ones. "

"Were you such a very bad child?" asked Katy. 

"Oh, utterly depraved, I believe. You wouldn't think so now, would you?I recollect some dreadful occasions at school. Once I had my head pinnedup in my apron because I _would_ make faces at the other scholars, andthey laughed; but I promptly bit a bay-window through the apron, and ranmy tongue out of it till they laughed worse than ever. The teacher usedto send me home with notes fastened to my pinafore with things like thiswritten in them: 'Little Frisk has been more troublesome than usualto-day. She has pinched all the younger children, and bent the bonnetsof all the older ones. We hope to see an amendment soon, or we do notknow what we shall do. '"

"Why did they call you Little Frisk?" inquired Katy, after she hadrecovered from the laugh which Rose's reminiscences called forth. 

"It was a term of endearment, I suppose; but somehow my family neverseemed to enjoy it as they ought. I cannot understand, " she went onreflectively, "why I had not sense enough to suppress those awfullittle notes. It would have been so easy to lose them on the way home, but somehow it never occurred to me. Little Rose will be wiser thanthat; won't you, my angel? She will tear up the horrid notes--mammywill show her how!"

All the time that Katy was washing her face and brushing the dust of therailway from her dress, Rose sat by with the little Rose in her lap, entertaining her thus. When she was ready, the droll little mamma tuckedher baby under her arm and led the way downstairs to a large squareparlor with a bay-window, through which the westering sun was shining. It was a pretty room, and had a flavor about it "just like Rose, " Katydeclared. No one else would have hung the pictures or looped back thecurtains in exactly that way, or have hit upon the happy device offilling the grate with a great bunch of marigolds, pale brown, golden, and orange, to simulate the fire, which would have been quite too warmon so mild an evening. Morris papers and chintzes and "artistic" shadesof color were in their infancy at that date; but Rose's taste was inadvance of her time, and with a foreshadowing of the coming "reaction, "she had chosen a "greenery, yallery" paper for her walls, against whichhung various articles which looked a great deal queerer then than theywould to-day. There was a mandolin, picked up at some Eastern sale, awarming-pan in shining brass from her mother's attic, two old samplersworked in faded silks, and a quantity of gayly tinted Japanese fans andembroideries. She had also begged from an old aunt at Beverly Farms acouple of droll little armchairs in white painted wood, with covers ofantique needle-work. One had "Chit" embroidered on the middle of itscushion; the other, "Chat. " These stood suggestively at the corners ofthe hearth. 

"Now, Katy, " said Rose, seating herself in "Chit, " "pull up 'Chat' andlet us begin. "

So they did begin, and went on, interrupted only by Baby Rose's coos andsplutters, till the dusk fell, till appetizing smells floated throughfrom the rear of the house, and the click of a latch-key announced Mr. Browne, come home just in time for dinner. 

The two days' visit went only too quickly. There is nothing morefascinating to a girl than the menage of a young couple of her own age. It is a sort of playing at real life without the cares and the sense ofresponsibility that real life is sure to bring. Rose was an adventuroushousekeeper. She was still new to the position, she found it veryentertaining, and she delighted in experiments of all sorts. If theyturned out well, it was good fun; if not, that was funnier still! Herhusband, for all his serious manner, had a real boy's love of a lark, and he aided and abetted her in all sorts of whimsical devices. Theyowned a dog who was only less dear than the baby, a cat only less dearthan the dog, a parrot whose education required constant supervision, and a hutch of ring-doves whose melancholy little "whuddering" coos werethe delight of Rose the less. The house seemed astir with young life allover. The only elderly thing in it was the cook, who had the reputationof a dreadful temper; only, unfortunately, Rose made her laugh so muchthat she never found time to be cross. 

Katy felt quite an old, experienced person amid all this movement andliveliness and cheer. It seemed to her that nobody in the world couldpossibly be having such a good time as Rose; but Rose did not take thesame view of the situation. 

"It's all very well now, " she said, "while the warm weather lasts; butin winter Longwood is simply grewsome. The wind never stops blowing daynor night. It howls and it roars and it screams, till I feel as if everynerve in my body were on the point of snapping in two. And the snow, ugh! And the wind, ugh! And burglars! Every night of our lives theycome, --or I think they come, --and I lie awake and hear them sharpeningtheir tools and forcing the locks and murdering the cook and kidnappingBaby, till I long to die, and have done with them forever! Oh, Nature isthe most unpleasant thing!"

"Burglars are not Nature, " objected Katy. 

"What are they, then? Art? High Art? Well, whatever they are, I do notlike them. Oh, if ever the happy day comes when Deniston consents tomove into town, I never wish to set my eyes on the country again as longas I live, unless--well, yes, I should like to come out just once morein the horse-cars and _kick_ that elm-tree by the fence! The number oftimes that I have lain awake at night listening to its creaking!"

"You might kick it without waiting to have a house in town. "

"Oh, I shouldn't dare as long as we are living here! You never know whatNature may do. She has ways of her own of getting even with people, "remarked her friend, solemnly. 

No time must be lost in showing Boston to Katy, Rose said. So themorning after her arrival she was taken in bright and early to see thesights. There were not quite so many sights to be seen then as there aretoday. The Art Museum had not got much above its foundations; the newTrinity Church was still in the future; but the big organ and the bronzestatue of Beethoven were in their glory, and every day at high noon asmall straggling audience wandered into Music Hall to hear theinstrument played. To this extempore concert Katy was taken, and toFaneuil Hall and the Athenaeum, to Doll and Richards's, where was anexhibition of pictures, to the Granary Graveyard, and the Old South. Then the girls did a little shopping; and by that time they were quitetired enough to make the idea of luncheon agreeable, so they took thepath across the Common to the Joy Street Mall. 

Katy was charmed by all she had seen. The delightful nearness of so manyinteresting things surprised her. She perceived what is one of Boston'schief charms, --that the Common and its surrounding streets make anatural centre and rallying-point for the whole city; as the heart isthe centre of the body and keeps up a quick correspondence and regulatesthe life of all its extremities. The stately old houses on BeaconStreet, with their rounded fronts, deep window-casements, and here andthere a mauve or a lilac pane set in the sashes, took her fancy greatly;and so did the State House, whose situation made it sufficientlyimposing, even before the gilding of the dome. 

Up the steep steps of the Joy Street Mall they went, to the house on Mt. Vernon Street which the Reddings had taken on their return fromWashington nearly three years before. Rose had previously shown Katy thesite of the old family house on Summer Street, where she was born, nowgiven over wholly to warehouses and shops. Their present residence wasone of those wide old-fashioned brick houses on the crest of the hill, whose upper windows command the view across to the Boston Highlands; inthe rear was a spacious yard, almost large enough to be called a garden, walled in with ivies and grapevines, under which were long beds full ofroses and chrysanthemums and marigolds and mignonette. 

Rose carried a latch-key in her pocket, which she said had been one ofher wedding-gifts; with this she unlocked the front door and let Katyinto a roomy white-painted hall. 

"We will go straight through to the back steps, " she said. "Mamma issure to be sitting there; she always sits there till the first frost;she says it makes her think of the country. How different people are! Idon't want to think of the country, but I'm never allowed to forget itfor a moment. Mamma is so fond of those steps and the garden. "

There, to be sure, Mrs. Redding was found sitting in a wicker-workchair under the shade of the grapevines, with a big basket of mendingat her side. It looked so homely and country-like to find a personthus occupied in the middle of a busy city, that Katy's heart warmedto her at once. 

Mrs. Redding was a fair little woman, scarcely taller than Rose and verymuch like her. She gave Katy a kind welcome. 

"You do not seem like a stranger, " she said, "Rose has told us so muchabout you and your sister. Sylvia will be very disappointed not to seeyou. She went off to make some visits when we broke up in the country, and is not to be home for three weeks yet. "

Katy was disappointed, too, for she had heard a great deal about Sylviaand had wished very much to meet her. She was shown her picture, fromwhich she gathered that she did not look in the least like Rose; forthough equally fair, her fairness was of the tall aquiline type, quitedifferent from Rose's dimpled prettiness. In fact, Rose resembled hermother, and Sylvia her father; they were only alike in littlepeculiarities of voice and manner, of which a portrait did not enableKaty to judge. 

The two girls had a cosey little luncheon with Mrs. Redding, after whichRose carried Katy off to see the house and everything in it which was inany way connected with her own personal history, --the room where sheused to sleep, the high-chair in which she sat as a baby and which waspresently to be made over to little Rose, the sofa where Denistonoffered himself, and the exact spot on the carpet on which she had stoodwhile they were being married! Last of all, --

"Now you shall see the best and dearest thing in the whole house, "she said, opening the door of a room in the second story. --"Grandmamma, here is my friend Katy Carr, whom you have so oftenheard me tell about. "

It was a large pleasant room, with a little wood-fire blazing in agrate, by which, in an arm-chair full of cushions, with aSolitaire-board on a little table beside her, sat a sweet old lady. This was Rose's father's mother. She was nearly eighty; but she wasbeautiful still, and her manner had a gracious old-fashioned courtesywhich was full of charm. She had been thrown from a carriage the yearbefore, and had never since been able to come downstairs or to minglein the family life. 

"They come to me instead, " she told Katy. "There is no lack of pleasantcompany, " she added; "every one is very good to me. I have a reader fortwo hours a day, and I read to myself a little, and play Patience andSolitaire, and never lack entertainment. "

There was something restful in the sight of such a lovely specimen ofold age. Katy realized, as she looked at her, what a loss it had beento her own life that she had never known either of her grandparents. She sat and gazed at old Mrs. Redding with a mixture of regret andfascination. She longed to hold her hand, and kiss her, and play withher beautiful silvery hair, as Rose did. Rose was evidently the oldlady's peculiar darling. They were on the most intimate terms; andRose dimpled and twinkled, and made saucy speeches, and told all herlittle adventures and the baby's achievements, and made jests, andtalked nonsense as freely as to a person of her own age. It was adelightful relation. 

"Grandmamma has taken a fancy to you, I can see, " she told Katy, as theydrove back to Longwood. "She always wants to know my friends; and shehas her own opinions about them, I can tell you. "

"Do you really think she liked me?" said Katy, warmly. "I am so gladif she did, for I _loved_ her. I never saw a really beautiful oldperson before. "

"Oh, there's nobody like her, " rejoined Rose. "I can't imagine what itwould be not to have her. " Her merry little face was quite sad andserious as she spoke. "I wish she were not so old, " she added with asigh. "If we could only put her back twenty years! Then, perhaps, shewould live as long as I do. "

But, alas! there is no putting back the hands on the dial of time, nomatter how much we may desire it. 

The second day of Katy's visit was devoted to the luncheon-party ofwhich Rose had written in her letter, and which was meant to be areunion or "side chapter" of the S. S. U. C. Rose had asked every oldHillsover girl who was within reach. There was Mary Silver, of course, and Esther Dearborn, both of whom lived in Boston; and by good luckAlice Gibbons happened to be making Esther a visit, and Ellen Gray camein from Waltham, where her father had recently been settled over aparish, so that all together they made six of the original nine of thesociety; and Quaker Row itself never heard a merrier confusion oftongues than resounded through Rose's pretty parlor for the first hourafter the arrival of the guests. 

There was everybody to ask after, and everything to tell. The girls allseemed wonderfully unchanged to Katy, but they professed to find hervery grown up and dignified. 

"I wonder if I am, " she said. "Clover never told me so. But perhaps shehas grown dignified too. "

"Nonsense!" cried Rose; "Clover could no more be dignified than my babycould. Mary Silver, give me that child this moment! I never saw such agreedy thing as you are; you have kept her to yourself at least aquarter of an hour, and it isn't fair. "

"Oh, I beg your pardon, " said Mary, laughing and covering her mouth withher hand exactly in her old, shy, half-frightened way. 

"We only need Mrs. Nipson to make our little party complete, " went onRose, "or dear Miss Jane! What has become of Miss Jane, by the way? Doany of you know?"

"Oh, she is still teaching at Hillsover and waiting for her missionary. He has never come back. Berry Searles says that when he goes out to walkhe always walks away from the United States, for fear of diminishing thedistance between them. "

"What a shame!" said Katy, though she could not help laughing. "MissJane was really quite nice, --no, not nice exactly, but she had goodthings about her. "

"Had she!" remarked Rose, satirically. "I never observed them. Itrequired eyes like yours, real 'double million magnifying-glasses ofh'extra power, ' to find them out. She was all teeth and talons as faras I was concerned; but I think she really did have a softish spot inher old heart for you, Katy, and it's the only good thing I ever knewabout her. "

"What has become of Lilly Page?" asked Ellen. 

"She's in Europe with her mother. I dare say you'll meet, Katy, and whata pleasure that will be! And have you heard about Bella? she's teachingschool in the Indian Territory. Just fancy that scrap teaching school!"

"Isn't it dangerous?" asked Mary Silver. 

"Dangerous? How? To her scholars, do you mean? Oh, the Indians! Well, her scalp will be easy to identify if she has adhered to her favoritepomatum; that's one comfort, " put in naughty Rose. 

It was a merry luncheon indeed, as little Rose seemed to think, for shelaughed and cooed incessantly. The girls were enchanted with her, andvoted her by acclamation an honorary member of the S. S. U. C. Her healthwas drunk in Apollinaris water with all the honors, and Rose returnedthanks in a droll speech. The friends told each other their historiesfor the past three years; but it was curious how little, on the whole, most of them had to tell. Though, perhaps, that was because they did nottell all; for Alice Gibbons confided to Katy in a whisper that shestrongly suspected Esther of being engaged, and at the same moment EllenGray was convulsing Rose by the intelligence that a theological studentfrom Andover was "very attentive" to Mary Silver. 

"My dear, I don't believe it, " Rose said, "not even a theologicalstudent would dare! and if he did, I am quite sure Mary would considerit most improper. You must be mistaken, Ellen. "

"No, I'm not mistaken; for the theological student is my second cousin, and his sister told me all about it. They are not engaged exactly, butshe hasn't said no; so he hopes she will say yes. "

"Oh, she'll never say no; but then she will never say yes, either. Hewould better take silence as consent! Well, I never did think I shouldlive to see Silvery Mary married. I should as soon have expected to findthe Thirty-nine Articles engaged in a flirtation. She's a dear oldthing, though, and as good as gold; and I shall consider your secondcousin a lucky man if he persuades her. "

"I wonder where we shall all be when you come back, Katy, " said EstherDearborn as they parted at the gate. "A year is a long time; all sortsof things may happen in a year. "

These words rang in Katy's ears as she fell asleep that night. "Allsorts of things may happen in a year, " she thought, "and they may not beall happy things, either. " Almost she wished that the journey to Europehad never been thought of!

But when she waked the next morning to the brightest of October sunsshining out of a clear blue sky, her misgivings fled. There could nothave been a more beautiful day for their start. 

She and Rose went early into town, for old Mrs. Bedding had made Katypromise to come for a few minutes to say good-by. They found her sittingby the fire as usual, though her windows were open to admit thesun-warmed air. A little basket of grapes stood on the table beside her, with a nosegay of tea-roses on top. These were from Rose's mother, forKaty to take on board the steamer; and there was something else, a smallparcel twisted up in thin white paper. 

"It is my good-by gift, " said the dear old lady. "Don't open it now. Keep it till you are well out at sea, and get some little thing with itas a keepsake from me. "

Grateful and wondering, Katy put the little parcel in her pocket. Withkisses and good wishes she parted from these new made friends, and sheand Rose drove to the steamer, stopping for Mr. Browne by the way. Theywere a little late, so there was not much time for farewells after theyarrived; but Rose snatched a moment for a private interview with thestewardess, unnoticed by Katy, who was busy with Mrs. Ashe and Amy. 

The bell rang, and the great steam-vessel slowly backed into the stream. Then her head was turned to sea, and down the bay she went, leaving Roseand her husband still waving their handkerchiefs on the pier. Katywatched them to the last, and when she could no longer distinguish them, felt that her final link with home was broken. 

It was not till she had settled her things in the little cabin whichwas to be her home for the next ten days, had put her bonnet and dressfor safe keeping in the upper berth, nailed up her red and yellow bag, and donned the woollen gown, ulster, and soft felt hat which were to doservice during the voyage, that she found time to examine themysterious parcel. 

Behold, it was a large, beautiful gold-piece, twenty dollars!

"What a darling old lady!" said Katy; and she gave the gold-piece akiss. "How did she come to think of such a thing? I wonder if there isanything in Europe good enough to buy with it?"

CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE "SPARTACUS. "

The ulster and the felt hat soon came off again, for a head wind laywaiting in the offing, and the "Spartacus" began to pitch and toss in amanner which made all her unseasoned passengers glad to betakethemselves to their berths. Mrs. Ashe and Amy were among the earliestvictims of sea-sickness; and Katy, after helping them to settle in theirstaterooms, found herself too dizzy and ill to sit up a moment longer, and thankfully resorted to her own. 

As the night came on, the wind grew stronger and the motion worse. The"Spartacus" had the reputation of being a dreadful "roller, " and seemedbound to justify it on this particular voyage. Down, down, down thegreat hull would slide till Katy would hold her breath with fear lest itmight never right itself again; then slowly, slowly the turn would bemade, and up, up, up it would go, till the cant on the other side wasequally alarming. On the whole, Katy preferred to have her own side ofthe ship, the downward one; for it was less difficult to keep herself inthe berth, from which she was in continual danger of being thrown. Thenight seemed endless, for she was too frightened to sleep except inbroken snatches; and when day dawned, and she looked through the littleround pane of glass in the port-hole, only gray sky and gray welteringwaves and flying spray and rain met her view. 

"Oh, dear, why do people ever go to sea, unless they must?" she thoughtfeebly to herself. She wanted to get up and see how Mrs. Ashe had livedthrough the night, but the attempt to move made her so miserably illthat she was glad to sink again on her pillows. 

The stewardess looked in with offers of tea and toast, the very ideaof which was simply dreadful, and pronounced the other lady "'orridlyill, worse than you are, Miss, " and the little girl "takin' ondreadful in the h'upper berth. " Of this fact Katy soon had audibleproof; for as her dizzy senses rallied a little, she could hear Amy inthe opposite stateroom crying and sobbing pitifully. She seemed to beangry as well as sick, for she was scolding her poor mother in themost vehement fashion. 

"I hate being at sea, " Katy heard her say. "I won't stay in this nastyold ship. Mamma! Mamma! do you hear me? I won't stay in this ship! Itwasn't a bit kind of you to bring me to such a horrid place. It was veryunkind; it was cru-el. I want to go back, mamma. Tell the captain totake me back to the land. Mamma, why don't you speak to me? Oh, I am sosick and so very un-happy. Don't you wish you were dead? I do!"

And then came another storm of sobs, but never a sound from Mrs. Ashe, who, Katy suspected, was too ill to speak. She felt very sorry for poorlittle Amy, raging there in her high berth like some imprisonedcreature, but she was powerless to help her. She could only resignherself to her own discomforts, and try to believe that somehow, sometime, this state of things must mend, --either they should all get toland or all go to the bottom and be drowned, and at that moment shedidn't care very much which it turned out to be. 

The gale increased as the day wore on, and the vessel pitcheddreadfully. Twice Katy was thrown out of her berth on the floor; thenthe stewardess came and fixed a sort of movable side to the berth, whichheld her in, but made her feel like a child fastened into a railed crib. At intervals she could still hear Amy crying and scolding her mother, and conjectured that they were having a dreadful time of it in the otherstateroom. It was all like a bad dream. "And they call this travellingfor pleasure!" thought poor Katy. 

One droll thing happened in the course of the second night, --at least itseemed droll afterward; at the time Katy was too uncomfortable to enjoyit. Amid the rush of the wind, the creaking of the ship's timbers, andthe shrill buzz of the screw, she heard a sound of queer littlefootsteps in the entry outside of her open door, hopping and leapingtogether in an odd irregular way, like a regiment of mice or toysoldiers. Nearer and nearer they came; and Katy opening her eyes saw aprocession of boots and shoes of all sizes and shapes, which hadevidently been left on the floors or at the doors of various staterooms, and which in obedience to the lurchings of the vessel had collected inthe cabin. They now seemed to be acting in concert with one another, andreally looked alive as they bumped and trotted side by side, and two bytwo, in at the door and up close to her bedside. There they remained forseveral moments executing what looked like a dance; then the leadingshoe turned on its heel as if giving a signal to the others, and theyall hopped slowly again into the passage-way and disappeared. It wasexactly like one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy-tales, Katy wrote toClover afterward. She heard them going down the cabin; but how it ended, or whether the owners of the boots and shoes ever got their ownparticular pairs again, she never knew. 

Toward morning the gale abated, the sea became smoother, and she droppedasleep. When she woke the sun was struggling through the clouds, and shefelt better. 

The stewardess opened the port-hole to freshen the air, and helped herto wash her face and smooth her tangled hair; then she produced a littlebasin of gruel and a triangular bit of toast, and Katy found that herappetite was come again and she could eat. 

"And 'ere's a letter, ma'am, which has come for you by post thismorning, " said the nice old stewardess, producing an envelope from herpocket, and eying her patient with great satisfaction. 

"By post!" cried Katy, in amazement; "why, how can that be?" Thencatching sight of Rose's handwriting on the envelope, she understood, and smiled at her own simplicity. 

The stewardess beamed at her as she opened it, then saying again, "Yes, 'm, by post, m'm, " withdrew, and left Katy to enjoy the little surprise. 

The letter was not long, but it was very like its writer. Rose drew apicture of what Katy would probably be doing at the time it reachedher, --a picture so near the truth that Katy felt as if Rose must havethe spirit of prophecy, especially as she kindly illustrated thesituation with a series of pen-and-ink drawings, in which Katy wasdepicted as prone in her berth, refusing with horror to go to dinner, looking longingly backward toward the quarter where the United Stateswas supposed to be, and fishing out of her port-hole with a crooked pinin hopes of grappling the submarine cable and sending a message to herfamily to come out at once and take her home. It ended with this short"poem, " over which Katy laughed till Mrs. Ashe called feebly across theentry to ask what _was_ the matter?

 "Break, break, break And mis-behave, O sea, And I wish that my tongue could utter The hatred I feel for thee!

 "Oh, well for the fisherman's child On the sandy beach at his play; Oh, well for all sensible folk Who are safe at home to-day!

 "But this horrible ship keeps on, And is never a moment still, And I yearn for the touch of the nice dry land, Where I needn't feel so ill!

 "Break! break! break! There is no good left in me; For the dinner I ate on the shore so late Has vanished into the sea!"

Laughter is very restorative after the forlornity of sea-sickness; andKaty was so stimulated by her letter that she managed to struggle intoher dressing-gown and slippers and across the entry to Mrs. Ashe'sstateroom. Amy had fallen asleep at last and must not be waked up, sotheir interview was conducted in whispers. Mrs. Ashe had by no means gotto the tea-and-toast stage yet, and was feeling miserable enough. 

"I have had the most dreadful time with Amy, " she said. "All dayyesterday, when she wasn't sick she was raging at me from the upperberth, and I too ill to say a word in reply. I never knew her sonaughty! And it seemed very neglectful not to come to see after you, poor dear child! but really I couldn't raise my head. "

"Neither could I, and I felt just as guilty not to be taking care ofyou, " said Katy. "Well, the worst is over with all of us, I hope. Thevessel doesn't pitch half so much now, and the stewardess says we shallfeel a great deal better as soon as we get on deck. She is comingpresently to help me up; and when Amy wakes, won't you let her bedressed, and I will take care of her while Mrs. Barrett attends to you. "

"I don't think I can be dressed, " sighed poor Mrs. Ashe. "I feel as if Ishould just lie here till we get to Liverpool. "

"Oh no, h'indeed, mum, --no, you won't, " put in Mrs. Barrett, who at thatmoment appeared, gruel-cup in hand. "I don't never let my ladies lie intheir berths a moment longer than there is need of. I h'always gets themon deck as soon as possible to get the h'air. It's the best medicine youcan 'ave, ma'am, the fresh h'air; h'indeed it h'is. "

Stewardesses are all-powerful on board ship, and Mrs. Barrett was sopersuasive as well as positive that it was not possible to resist her. She got Katy into her dress and wraps, and seated her on deck in a chairwith a great rug wrapped about her feet, with very little effort onKaty's part. Then she dived down the companion-way again, and in thecourse of an hour appeared escorting a big burly steward, who carriedpoor little pale Amy in his arms as easily as though she had been akitten. Amy gave a scream of joy at the sight of Katy, and cuddled downin her lap under the warm rug with a sigh of relief and satisfaction. 

"I thought I was never going to see you again, " she said, with a littlesqueeze. "Oh, Miss Katy, it has been so horrid! I never thought thatgoing to Europe meant such dreadful things as this!"

"This is only the beginning; we shall get across the sea in a few days, and then we shall find out what going to Europe really means. But whatmade you behave so, Amy, and cry and scold poor mamma when she was sick?I could hear you all the way across the entry. "

"Could you? Then why didn't you come to me?"

"I wanted to; but I was sick too, so sick that I couldn't move. But whywere you so naughty?--you didn't tell me. "

"I didn't mean to be naughty, but I couldn't help crying. You would havecried too, and so would Johnnie, if you had been cooped up in a dreadfulold berth at the top of the wall that you couldn't get out of, andhadn't had anything to eat, and nobody to bring you any water when youwanted some. And mamma wouldn't answer when I called to her. "

"She couldn't answer; she was too ill, " explained Katy. "Well, my pet, it _was_ pretty hard for you. I hope we sha'n't have any more such days. The sea is a great deal smoother now. "

"Mabel looks quite pale; she was sick, too, " said Amy, regarding thedoll in her arms with an anxious air. "I hope the fresh h'air will doher good. "

"Is she going to have any fresh hair?" asked Katy, wilfullymisunderstanding. 

"That was what that woman called it, --the fat one who made me come uphere. But I'm glad she did, for I feel heaps better already; only I keepthinking of poor little Maria Matilda shut up in the trunk in that darkplace, and wondering if she's sick. There's nobody to explain to herdown there. "

"They say that you don't feel the motion half so much in the bottom ofthe ship, " said Katy. "Perhaps she hasn't noticed it at all. Dear me, how good something smells! I wish they would bring us something to eat. "

A good many passengers had come up by this time; and Robert, the decksteward, was going about, tray in hand, taking orders for lunch. Amy andKaty both felt suddenly ravenous; and when Mrs. Ashe awhile later washelped up the stairs, she was amazed to find them eating cold beef androasted potatoes, with the finest appetites in the world. "They hadserved out their apprenticeships, " the kindly old captain told them, "and were made free of the nautical guild from that time on. " So itproved; for after these two bad days none of the party were sick againduring the voyage. 

Amy had a clamorous appetite for stories as well as for cold beef; andto appease this craving, Katy started a sort of ocean serial, called"The History of Violet and Emma, " which she meant to make last till theygot to Liverpool, but which in reality lasted much longer. It might withequal propriety have been called "The Adventures of two little Girls whodidn't have any Adventures, " for nothing in particular happened toeither Violet or Emma during the whole course of their long-drawn-outhistory. Amy, however, found them perfectly enchanting, and was neverweary of hearing how they went to school and came home again, how theygot into scrapes and got out of them, how they made good resolutions andbroke them, about their Christmas presents and birthday treats, and whatthey said and how they felt. The first instalment of this un-excitingromance was given that first afternoon on deck; and after that, Amyclaimed a new chapter daily, and it was a chief ingredient of herpleasure during the voyage. 

On the third morning Katy woke and dressed so early, that she gained thedeck before the sailors had finished their scrubbing and holystoning. She took refuge within the companion-way, and sat down on the top stepof the ladder, to wait till the deck was dry enough to venture upon it. There the Captain found her and drew near for a talk. 

Captain Bryce was exactly the kind of sea-captain that is found instory-books, but not always in real life. He was stout and grizzled andbrown and kind. He had a bluff weather-beaten face, lit up with a pairof shrewd blue eyes which twinkled when he was pleased; and his manner, though it was full of the habit of command, was quiet and pleasant. Hewas a Martinet on board his ship. Not a sailor under him would havedared dispute his orders for a moment; but he was very popular withthem, notwithstanding; they liked him as much as they feared him, forthey knew him to be their best friend if it came to sickness or troublewith any of them. 

Katy and he grew quite intimate during their long morning talk. TheCaptain liked girls. He had one of his own, about Katy's age, and wasfond of talking about her. Lucy was his mainstay at home, he told Katy. Her mother had been "weakly" now this long time back, and Bess and Nannywere but children yet, so Lucy had to take command and keep thingsship-shape when he was away. 

"She'll be on the lookout when the steamer comes in, " said the Captain. "There's a signal we've arranged which means 'All's well, ' and when weget up the river a little way I always look to see if it's flying. It'sa bit of a towel hung from a particular window; and when I see it I sayto myself, 'Thank God! another voyage safely done and no harm come ofit. ' It's a sad kind of work for a man to go off for a twenty-four days'cruise leaving a sick wife on shore behind him. If it wasn't that I haveLucy to look after things, I should have thrown up my command long ago. "

"Indeed, I am glad you have Lucy; she must he a great comfort to you, "said Katy, sympathetically; for the Captain's hearty voice trembled alittle as he spoke. She made him tell her the color of Lucy's hair andeyes, and exactly how tall she was, and what she had studied, and whatsort of books she liked. She seemed such a very nice girl, and Katythought she should like to know her. 

The deck had dried fast in the fresh sea-wind, and the Captain had justarranged Katy in her chair, and was wrapping the rug about her feet in afatherly way, when Mrs. Barrett, all smiles, appeared from below. 

"Oh, 'ere you h'are, Miss. I couldn't think what 'ad come to you soearly; and you're looking ever so well again, I'm pleased to see; and'ere's a bundle just arrived, Miss, by the Parcels Delivery. "

"What!" cried simple Katy. Then she laughed at her own foolishness, andtook the "bundle, " which was directed in Rose's unmistakable hand. 

It contained a pretty little green-bound copy of Emerson's Poems, withKaty's name and "To be read at sea, " written on the flyleaf. Somehow thelittle gift seemed to bridge the long misty distance which stretchedbetween the vessel's stern and Boston Bay, and to bring home and friendsa great deal nearer. With a half-happy, half-tearful pleasure Katyrecognized the fact that distance counts for little if people love oneanother, and that hearts have a telegraph of their own whose messagesare as sure and swift as any of those sent over the material lines whichlink continent to continent and shore with shore. 

Later in the morning, Katy, going down to her stateroom for something, came across a pallid, exhausted-looking lady, who lay stretched on oneof the long sofas in the cabin, with a baby in her arms and a littlegirl sitting at her feet, quite still, with a pair of small hands foldedin her lap. The little girl did not seem to be more than four years old. She had two pig-tails of thick flaxen hair hanging over her shoulders, and at Katy's approach raised a pair of solemn blue eyes, which had somuch appeal in them, though she said nothing, that Katy stopped at once. 

"Can I do anything for you?" she asked. "I am afraid you have beenvery ill. "

At the sound of her voice the lady on the sofa opened her eyes. Shetried to speak, but to Katy's dismay began to cry instead; and when thewords came they were strangled with sobs. 

"You are so kin-d to ask, " she said. "If you would give my little girlsomething to eat! She has had nothing since yesterday, and I have beenso ill; and no-nobody has c-ome near us!"

"Oh!" cried Katy, with horror, "nothing to eat since yesterday! How didit happen?"

"Everybody has been sick on our side the ship, " explained the poor lady, "and I suppose the stewardess thought, as I had a maid with me, that Ineeded her less than the others. But my maid has been sick, too; and oh, so selfish! She wouldn't even take the baby into the berth with her; andI have had all I could do to manage with him, when I couldn't lift up myhead. Little Gretchen has had to go without anything; and she has beenso good and patient!"

Katy lost no time, but ran for Mrs. Barrett, whose indignation knew nobounds when she heard how the helpless party had been neglected. 

"It's a new person that stewardess h'is, ma'am, " she explained, "andmost h'inefficient! I told the Captain when she come aboard that Ididn't 'ave much opinion of her, and now he'll see how it h'is. I'mh'ashamed that such a thing should 'appen on the 'Spartacus, ' ma'am, --Ih'am, h'indeed. H'it never would 'ave ben so h'under h'Eliza, ma'am, --she's the one that went h'off and got herself married the tripbefore last, when this person came to take her place. "

All the time that she talked Mrs. Barrett was busy in making Mrs. Ware--for that, it seemed, was the sick lady's name--more comfortable;and Katy was feeding Gretchen out of a big bowl full of bread and milkwhich one of the stewards had brought. The little uncomplaining thingwas evidently half starved, but with the mouthfuls the pink began tosteal back into her cheeks and lips, and the dark circles lessened underthe blue eyes. By the time the bottom of the bowl was reached she couldsmile, but still she said not a word except a whispered _Danke schon_. Her mother explained that she had been born in Germany, and always tillnow had been cared for by a German nurse, so that she knew that languagebetter than English. 

[Illustration: Katy was feeding Gretchen out of a big bowl full of breadand milk. ]

Gretchen was a great amusement to Katy and Amy during the rest of thevoyage. They kept her on deck with them a great deal, and she wasperfectly content with them and very good, though always solemn andquiet. Pleasant people turned up among the passengers, as always happenson an ocean steamship, and others not so pleasant, perhaps, who wererather curious and interesting to watch. 

Katy grew to feel as if she knew a great deal about her fellowtravellers as time went on. There was the young girl going out to joinher parents under the care of a severe governess, whom everybody onboard rather pitied. There was the other girl on her way to study art, who was travelling quite alone, and seemed to have nobody to meet her orto go to except a fellow student of her own age, already in Paris, butwho seemed quite unconscious of her lonely position and competent tograpple with anything or anybody. There was the queer old gentleman whohad "crossed" eleven times before, and had advice and experience tospare for any one who would listen to them; and the other gentleman, notso old but even more queer, who had "frozen his stomach, " eight yearsbefore, by indulging, on a hot summer's day, in sixteen successiveice-creams, alternated with ten glasses of equally cold soda-water, andwho related this exciting experience in turn to everybody on board. There was the bad little boy, whose parents were powerless to opposehim, and who carried terror to the hearts of all beholders whenever heappeared; and the pretty widow who filled the role of reigning belle;and the other widow, not quite so pretty or so much a belle, who had agood deal to say, in a voice made discreetly low, about what a pity itwas that dear Mrs. So-and-so should do this or that, and "Doesn't itstrike you as very unfortunate that she should not consider" the otherthing? A great sea-going steamer is a little world in itself, and givesone a glimpse of all sorts and conditions of people and characters. 

On the whole, there was no one on the "Spartacus" whom Katy liked sowell as sedate little Gretchen except the dear old Captain, with whomshe was a prime favorite. He gave Mrs. Ashe and herself the seats nextto him at table, looked after their comfort in every possible way, andeach night at dinner sent Katy one of the apple-dumplings made speciallyfor him by the cook, who had gone many voyages with the Captain and knewhis fancies. Katy did not care particularly for the dumpling, but shevalued it as a mark of regard, and always ate it when she could. 

Meanwhile, every morning brought a fresh surprise from that dear, painstaking Rose, who had evidently worked hard and thought harder incontriving pleasures for Katy's first voyage at sea. Mrs. Barrett wasenlisted in the plot, there could be no doubt of that, and enjoyed thejoke as much as any one, as she presented herself each day with theinvariable formula, "A letter for you, ma'am, " or "A bundle, Miss, comeby the Parcels Delivery. " On the fourth morning it was a photograph ofBaby Rose, in a little flat morocco case. The fifth brought a wonderfulepistle, full of startling pieces of news, none of them true. On thesixth appeared a long narrow box containing a fountain pen. Then cameMr. Howells's "A Foregone Conclusion, " which Katy had never seen; then abox of quinine pills; then a sachet for her trunk; then anotherburlesque poem; last of all, a cake of delicious violet soap, "to washthe sea-smell from her hands, " the label said. It grew to be one of thelittle excitements of ship life to watch for the arrival of these dailygifts; and "What did the mail bring for you this time, Miss Carr?" was aquestion frequently asked. Each arrival Katy thought must be the finalone; but Rose's forethought had gone so far even as to provide an extraparcel in case the voyage was a day longer than usual, and "Miss Carr'smail" continued to come in till the very last morning. 

Katy never forgot the thrill that went through her when, after so manydays of sea, her eyes first caught sight of the dim line of the Irishcoast. An exciting and interesting day followed as, after stopping atQueenstown to leave the mails, they sped northeastward between shoreswhich grew more distinct and beautiful with every hour, --on one sideIreland, on the other the bold mountain lines of the Welsh coast. It waslate afternoon when they entered the Mersey, and dusk had fallen beforethe Captain got out his glass to look for the white fluttering speck inhis own window which meant so much to him. Long he studied before hemade quite sure that it was there. At last he shut the glass with asatisfied air. 

"It's all right, " he said to Katy, who stood near, almost as muchinterested as he. "Lucy never forgets, bless her! Well, there's anothervoyage over and done with, thank God, and my Mary is where she was. It'sa load taken from my mind. "

The moon had risen and was shining softly on the river as thecrowded tender landed the passengers from the "Spartacus" at theLiverpool docks. 

"We shall meet again in London or in Paris, " said one to another, andcards and addresses were exchanged. Then after a brief delay at theCustom House they separated, each to his own particular destination;and, as a general thing, none of them ever saw any of the others again. It is often thus with those who have been fellow voyagers at sea; and itis always a surprise and perplexity to inexperienced travellers that itcan be so, and that those who have been so much to each other for tendays can melt away into space and disappear as though the brief intimacyhad never existed. 

"Four-wheeler or hansom, ma'am?" said a porter to Mrs. Ashe. 

"Which, Katy?"

"Oh, let us have a hansom! I never saw one, and they look so nicein 'Punch. '"

So a hansom cab was called, the two ladies got in, Amy cuddled downbetween them, the folding-doors were shut over their knees like alap-robe, and away they drove up the solidly paved streets to the hotelwhere they were to pass the night. It was too late to see or do anythingbut enjoy the sense of being on firm land once more. 

"How lovely it will be to sleep in a bed that doesn't tip or roll fromside to side!" said Mrs. Ashe. 

"Yes, and that is wide enough and long enough and soft enough to becomfortable!" replied Katy. "I feel as if I could sleep for a fortnightto make up for the bad nights at sea. "

Everything seemed delightful to her, --the space for undressing, thegreat tub of fresh water which stood beside the English-lookingwashstand with its ample basin and ewer, the chintz-curtained bed, thecoolness, the silence, --and she closed her eyes with the pleasantthought in her mind, "It is really England and we are really here!"

CHAPTER V. 

STORYBOOK ENGLAND. 

"Oh, is it raining?" was Katy's first question next morning, when themaid came to call her. The pretty room, with its gayly flowered chintz, and china, and its brass bedstead, did not look half so bright as whenlit with gas the night before; and a dim gray light struggled in at thewindow, which in America would certainly have meant bad weather comingor already come. 

"Oh no, h'indeed, ma'am, it's a very fine day, --not bright, ma'am, butvery dry, " was the answer. 

Katy couldn't imagine what the maid meant, when she peeped between thecurtains and saw a thick dull mist lying over everything, and thepavements opposite her window shining with wet. Afterwards, when sheunderstood better the peculiarities of the English climate, she toolearned to call days not absolutely rainy "fine, " and to be grateful forthem; but on that first morning her sensations were of bewilderedsurprise, almost vexation. 

Mrs. Ashe and Amy were waiting in the coffee-room when she went insearch of them. 

"What shall we have for breakfast, " asked Mrs. Ashe, --"our first meal inEngland? Katy, you order it. "

"Let's have all the things we have read about in books and don't have athome, " said Katy, eagerly. But when she came to look over the bill offare there didn't seem to be many such things. Soles and muffins shefinally decided upon, and, as an after-thought, gooseberry jam. 

"Muffins sound so very good in Dickens, you know, " she explained to Mrs. Ashe; "and I never saw a sole. "

The soles when they came proved to be nice little pan-fish, not unlikewhat in New England are called "scup. " All the party took kindly tothem; but the muffins were a great disappointment, tough and tasteless, with a flavor about them as of scorched flannel. 

"How queer and disagreeable they are!" said Katy. "I feel as if I wereeating rounds cut from an old ironing-blanket and buttered! Dear me!what did Dickens mean by making such a fuss about them, I wonder? And Idon't care for gooseberry jam, either; it isn't half as good as the jamswe have at home. Books are very deceptive. "

"I am afraid they are. We must make up our minds to find a great manythings not quite so nice as they sound when we read about them, " repliedMrs. Ashe. 

Mabel was breakfasting with them, of course, and was heard to remark atthis juncture that she didn't like muffins, either, and would a greatdeal rather have waffles; whereupon Amy reproved her, and explained thatnobody in England knew what waffles were, they were such a stupidnation, and that Mabel must learn to eat whatever was given her and notfind fault with it!

After this moral lesson it was found to be dangerously near train-time;and they all hurried to the railroad station, which, fortunately, wasclose by. There was rather a scramble and confusion for a few moments;for Katy, who had undertaken to buy the tickets, was puzzled by theunaccustomed coinage; and Mrs. Ashe, whose part was to see after theluggage, found herself perplexed and worried by the absence of checks, and by no means disposed to accept the porter's statement, that if she'donly bear in mind that the trunks were in the second van from theengine, and get out to see that they were safe once or twice during thejourney, and call for them as soon as they reached London, she'd have notrouble, --"please remember the porter, ma'am!" However all was happilysettled at last; and without any serious inconveniences they foundthemselves established in a first-class carriage, and presently afterrunning smoothly at full speed across the rich English midlands towardLondon and the eastern coast. 

The extreme greenness of the October landscape was what struck themfirst, and the wonderfully orderly and trim aspect of the country, withno ragged, stump-dotted fields or reaches of wild untended woods. Latein October as it was, the hedgerows and meadows were still almostsummer-like in color, though the trees were leafless. Thedelightful-looking old manor-houses and farm-houses, of which they hadglimpses now and again, were a constant pleasure to Katy, with theirmullioned windows, twisted chimney-stacks, porches of quaint build, andthick-growing ivy. She contrasted them with the uncompromising uglinessof farm-houses which she remembered at home, and wondered whether itcould be that at the end of another thousand years or so, America wouldhave picturesque buildings like these to show in addition to herpicturesque scenery. 

Suddenly into the midst of these reflections there glanced a picture sovivid that it almost took away her breath, as the train steamed past apack of hounds in full cry, followed by a galloping throng ofscarlet-coated huntsmen. One horse and rider were in the air, going overa wall. Another was just rising to the leap. A string of others, headedby a lady, were tearing across a meadow bounded by a little brook, andbeyond that streamed the hounds following the invisible fox. It was likeone of Muybridge's instantaneous photographs of "The Horse in Motion, "for the moment that it lasted; and Katy put it away in her memory, distinct and brilliant, as she might a real picture. 

Their destination in London was Batt's Hotel in Dover Street. The oldgentleman on the "Spartacus, " who had "crossed" so many times, hadfurnished Mrs. Ashe with a number of addresses of hotels andlodging-houses, from among which Katy had chosen Batt's for the reasonthat it was mentioned in Miss Edgeworth's "Patronage. " "It was theplace, " she explained, "where Godfrey Percy didn't stay when LordOldborough sent him the letter. " It seemed an odd enough reason forgoing anywhere that a person in a novel didn't stay there. But Mrs. Asheknew nothing of London, and had no preference of her own; so she wasperfectly willing to give Katy hers, and Batt's was decided upon. 

"It is just like a dream or a story, " said Katy, as they drove away fromthe London station in a four-wheeler. "It is really ourselves, and thisis really London! Can you imagine it?"

She looked out. Nothing met her eyes but dingy weather, muddy streets, long rows of ordinary brick or stone houses. It might very well havebeen New York or Boston on a foggy day, yet to her eyes all things had asubtle difference which made them unlike similar objects at home. 

"Wimpole Street!" she cried suddenly, as she caught sight of the name onthe corner; "that is the street where Maria Crawford in Mansfield Park, you know, 'opened one of the best houses' after she married Mr. Rushworth. Think of seeing Wimpole Street! What fun!" She looked eagerlyout after the "best houses, " but the whole street looked uninterestingand old-fashioned; the best house to be seen was not of a kind, Katythought, to reconcile an ambitious young woman to a dull husband. Katyhad to remind herself that Miss Austen wrote her novels nearly a centuryago, that London was a "growing" place, and that things were probablymuch changed since that day. 

More "fun" awaited them when they arrived at Batt's, and exactly such alandlady sailed forth to welcome them as they had often met with inbooks, --an old landlady, smiling and rubicund, with a towering lace capon her head, a flowered silk gown, a gold chain, and a pair of fatmittened hands demurely crossed over a black brocade apron. She alonewould have been worth crossing the ocean to see, they all declared. Their telegram had been received, and rooms were ready, with a bright, smoky fire of soft coals; the dinner-table was set, and a nice, formal, white-cravated old waiter, who seemed to have stepped out of the samebook with the landlady, was waiting to serve it. Everything was dingyand old-fashioned, but very clean and comfortable; and Katy concludedthat on the whole Godfrey Percy would have done wisely to go to Batt's, and could have fared no better at the other hotel where he did stay. 

The first of Katy's "London sights" came to her next morning before shewas out of her bedroom. She heard a bell ring and a queer squeakinglittle voice utter a speech of which she could not make out a singleword. Then came a laugh and a shout, as if several boys were amused atsomething or other; and altogether her curiosity was roused, so that shefinished dressing as fast as she could, and ran to the drawing-roomwindow which commanded a view of the street. Quite a little crowd wascollected under the window, and in their midst was a queer box raisedhigh on poles, with little red curtains tied back on either side to forma miniature stage, on which puppets were moving and vociferating. Katyknew in a moment that she was seeing her first Punch and Judy!

The box and the crowd began to move away. Katy in despair ran toWilkins, the old waiter who was setting the breakfast-table. 

"Oh, please stop that man!" she said. "I want to see him. "

"What man is it, Miss?" said Wilkins. 

When he reached the window and realized what Katy meant, his sense ofpropriety seemed to receive a severe shock. He even ventured onremonstrance. 

"H'I wouldn't, Miss, h'if h'I was you. Them Punches are a low lot, Miss;they h'ought to be put down, really they h'ought. Gentlefolks, h'as ageneral thing, pays no h'attention to them. "

But Katy didn't care what "gentlefolks" did or did not do, and insistedupon having Punch called back. So Wilkins was forced to swallow hisremonstrances and his dignity, and go in pursuit of the objectionableobject. Amy came rushing out, with her hair flying and Mabel in herarms; and she and Katy had a real treat of Punch and Judy, with all thewell-known scenes, and perhaps a few new ones thrown in for theirespecial behoof; for the showman seemed to be inspired by the rapturousenjoyment of his little audience of three at the first-floor windows. Punch beat Judy and stole the baby, and Judy banged Punch in return, andthe constable came in and Punch outwitted him, and the hangman and thedevil made their appearance duly; and it was all perfectly satisfactory, and "just exactly what she hoped it would be, and it quite made up forthe muffins, " Katy declared. 

Then, when Punch had gone away, the question arose as to what theyshould choose, out of the many delightful things in London, for theirfirst morning. 

Like ninety-nine Americans out of a hundred, they decided on WestminsterAbbey; and indeed there is nothing in England better worth seeing, ormore impressive, in its dim, rich antiquity, to eyes fresh from theworld which still calls itself "new. " So to the Abbey they went, andlingered there till Mrs. Ashe declared herself to be absolutely droppingwith fatigue. 

"If you don't take me home and give me something to eat, " she said, "Ishall drop down on one of these pedestals and stay there and beexhibited forever after as an 'h'effigy' of somebody belonging toancient English history. "

So Katy tore herself away from Henry the Seventh and the Poets' Corner, and tore Amy away from a quaint little tomb shaped like a cradle, withthe marble image of a baby in it, which had greatly taken her fancy. Shecould only be consoled by the promise that she should soon come againand stay as long as she liked. She reminded Katy of this promise thevery next morning. 

"Mamma has waked up with rather a bad headache, and she thinks shewill lie still and not come to breakfast, " she reported. "And shesends her love, and says will you please have a cab and go where youlike; and if I won't be a trouble, she would be glad if you would takeme with you. And I won't be a trouble, Miss Katy, and I know where Iwish you would go. "

"Where is that!"

"To see that cunning little baby again that we saw yesterday. I want toshow her to Mabel, --she didn't go with us, you know, and I don't like tohave her mind not improved; and, darling Miss Katy, mayn't I buy someflowers and put them on the Baby? She's so dusty and so old that I don'tbelieve anybody has put any flowers for her for ever so long. "

Katy found this idea rather pretty, and willingly stopped at CoventGarden, where they bought a bunch of late roses for eighteen pence, which entirely satisfied Amy. With them in her hand, and Mabel in herarms, she led the way through the dim aisles of the Abbey, throughgrates and doors and up and down steps; the guide following, but not atall needed, for Amy seemed to have a perfectly clear recollection ofevery turn and winding. When the chapel was reached, she laid the roseson the tomb with gentle fingers, and a pitiful, reverent look in hergray eyes. Then she lifted Mabel up to kiss the odd little baby effigyabove the marble quilt; whereupon the guide seemed altogether surprisedout of his composure, and remarked to Katy, --

"Little Miss is an h'American, as is plain to see; no h'English childwould be likely to think of doing such a thing. "

"Do not English children take any interest in the tombs of the Abbey?"asked Katy. 

"Oh yes, m'm, --h'interest; but they don't take no special notice of onetomb above h'another. "

Katy could scarcely keep from laughing, especially as she heard Amy, whohad been listening to the conversation, give an audible sniff, andinform Mabel that she was glad _she_ was not an English child, whodidn't notice things and liked grown-up graves as much as she did dearlittle cunning ones like this!

Later in the day, when Mrs. Ashe was better, they all drove together tothe quaint old keep which has been the scene of so many tragedies, andis known as the Tower of London. Here they were shown various rooms andchapels and prisons; and among the rest the apartments where QueenElizabeth, when a friendless young Princess, was shut up for many monthsby her sister, Queen Mary. Katy had read somewhere, and now told Amy, the pretty legend of the four little children who lived with theirparents in the Tower, and used to play with the royal captive; and howone little boy brought her a key which he had picked up on the ground, and said, "Now you can go out when you will, lady;" and how the Lords ofthe Council, getting wind of it, sent for the children to question them, and frightened them and their friends almost to death, and forbade themto go near the Princess again. 

A story about children always brings the past much nearer to a child, and Amy's imagination was so excited by this tale, that when they got tothe darksome closet which is said to have been the prison of Sir WalterRaleigh, she marched out of it with a pale and wrathful face. 

"If this is English history, I never mean to learn any more of it, andneither shall Mabel, " she declared. 

But it is not possible for Amy or any one else not to learn a great dealof history simply by going about London. So many places are associatedwith people or events, and seeing the places makes one care so much morefor the people or the events, that one insensibly questions and wonders. Katy, who had "browsed" all through her childhood in a goodold-fashioned library, had her memory stuffed with all manner of littlescraps of information and literary allusions, which now came into use. It was like owning the disjointed bits of a puzzle, and suddenlydiscovering that properly put together they make a pattern. Mrs. Ashe, who had never been much of a reader, considered her young friend aprodigy of intelligence; but Katy herself realized how inadequate andinexact her knowledge was, and how many bits were missing from thepattern of her puzzle. She wished with all her heart, as every onewishes under such circumstances, that she had studied harder and morewisely while the chance was in her power. On a journey you cannot readto advantage. Remember that, dear girls, who are looking forward totravelling some day, and be industrious in time. 

October is not a favorable month in which to see England. Water, wateris everywhere; you breathe it, you absorb it; it wets your clothes andit dampens your spirits. Mrs. Ashe's friends advised her not to think ofScotland at that time of the year. One by one their little intendedexcursions were given up. A single day and night in Oxford andStratford-on-Avon; a short visit to the Isle of Wight, where, in acountry-place which seemed provokingly pretty as far as they could seeit for the rain, lived that friend of Mrs. Ashe who had married anEnglishman and in so doing had, as Katy privately thought, "renouncedthe sun;" a peep at Stonehenge from under the shelter of an umbrella, and an hour or two in Salisbury Cathedral, --was all that theyaccomplished, except a brief halt at Winchester, that Katy might havethe privilege of seeing the grave of her beloved Miss Austen. Katy hadcome abroad with a terribly long list of graves to visit, Mrs. Ashedeclared. They laid a few rain-washed flowers upon the tomb, andlistened with edification to the verger, who inquired, --

"Whatever was it, ma'am, that lady did which brings so many h'Americansto h'ask about her? Our h'English people don't seem to take the sameh'interest. "

"She wrote such delightful stories, " explained Katy; but the old vergershook his head. 

"I think h'it must be some other party, Miss, you've confused with thishere. It stands to reason, Miss, that we'd have heard of 'em h'over 'erein England sooner than you would h'over there in h'America, if the books'ad been h'anything so h'extraordinary. "

The night after their return to London they were dining for the secondtime with the cousins of whom Mrs. Ashe had spoken to Dr. Carr; and asit happened Katy sat next to a quaint elderly American, who had livedfor twenty years in London and knew it much better than most Londonersdo. This gentleman, Mr. Allen Beach, had a hobby for antiquities, oldbooks especially, and passed half his time at the British Museum, andthe other half in sales rooms and the old shops in Wardour Street. 

Katy was lamenting over the bad weather which stood in the way oftheir plans. 

"It is so vexatious, " she said. "Mrs. Ashe meant to go to York andLincoln and all the cathedral towns and to Scotland; and we have had togive it all up because of the rains. We shall go away having seen hardlyanything. "

"You can see London. "

"We have, --that is, we have seen the things that everybody sees. "

"But there are so many things that people in general do not see. Howmuch longer are you to stay, Miss Carr?"

"A week, I believe. "

"Why don't you make out a list of old buildings which are connected withfamous people in history, and visit them in turn? I did that the secondyear after I came. I gave up three months to it, and it was mostinteresting. I unearthed all manner of curious stories and traditions. "

"Or, " cried Katy, struck with a sudden bright thought, "why mightn'tI put into the list some of the places I know about in books, --novelsas well as history, --and the places where the people who wrote thebooks lived?"

"You might do that, and it wouldn't be a bad idea, either, " said Mr. Beach, pleased with her enthusiasm. "I will get a pencil after dinnerand help you with your list if you will allow me. "

Mr. Beach was better than his word. He not only suggested places andtraced a plan of sight-seeing, but on two different mornings he wentwith them himself; and his intelligent knowledge of London added verymuch to the interest of the excursions. Under his guidance the littleparty of four--for Mabel was never left out; it was _such_ a chance forher to improve her mind, Amy declared--visited the Charter-House, whereThackeray went to school, and the Home of the Poor Brothers connectedwith it, in which Colonel Newcome answered "Adsum" to the roll-call ofthe angels. They took a look at the small house in Curzon Street, whichis supposed to have been in Thackeray's mind when he described theresidence of Becky Sharpe; and the other house in Russell Square whichis unmistakably that where George Osborne courted Amelia Sedley. Theywent to service in the delightful old church of St. Mary in the Temple, and thought of Ivanhoe and Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Rebecca theJewess. From there Mr. Beach took them to Lamb's Court, where Pendennisand George Warrington dwelt in chambers together; and to Brick Court, where Oliver Goldsmith passed so much of his life, and the little roomsin which Charles and Mary Lamb spent so many sadly happy years. Onanother day they drove to Whitefriars, for the sake of Lord Glenvarlochand the old privilege of Sanctuary in the "Fortunes of Nigel;" and tooka peep at Bethnal Green, where the Blind Beggar and his "Pretty Bessee"lived, and at the old Prison of the Marshalsea, made interesting by itsassociations with "Little Dorrit. " They also went to see Milton's houseand St. Giles Church, in which he is buried; and stood a long timebefore St. James Palace, trying to make out which could have been MissBurney's windows when she was dresser to Queen Charlotte of bittermemory. And they saw Paternoster Row and No. 5 Cheyne Walk, sacredforevermore to the memory of Thomas Carlyle, and Whitehall, where QueenElizabeth lay in state and King Charles was beheaded, and the staterooms of Holland House; and by great good luck had a glimpse of GeorgeEliot getting out of a cab. She stood for a moment while she gave herfare to the cabman, and Katy looked as one who might not look again, andcarried away a distinct picture of the unbeautiful, interesting, remarkable face. 

With all this to see and to do, the last week sped all too swiftly, andthe last day came before they were at all ready to leave what Katycalled "Story-book England. " Mrs. Ashe had decided to cross by Newhavenand Dieppe, because some one had told her of the beautiful old town ofRouen, and it seemed easy and convenient to take it on the way to Paris. Just landed from the long voyage across the Atlantic, the little passageof the Channel seemed nothing to our travellers, and they made ready fortheir night on the Dieppe steamer with the philosophy which is born ofignorance. They were speedily undeceived!

The English Channel has a character of its own, which distinguishes itfrom other seas and straits. It seems made fractious and difficult byNature, and set as on purpose to be barrier between two nations who aretoo unlike to easily understand each other, and are the safer neighborsfor this wholesome difficulty of communication between them. The "chop"was worse than usual on the night when our travellers crossed; thesteamer had to fight her way inch by inch. And oh, such a littlesteamer! and oh, such a long night!

CHAPTER VI. 

ACROSS THE CHANNEL. 

Dawn had given place to day, and day was well advanced toward noon, before the stout little steamer gained her port. It was hours afterthe usual time for arrival; the train for Paris must long since havestarted, and Katy felt dejected and forlorn as, making her way out ofthe terrible ladies'-cabin, she crept on deck for her first glimpseof France. 

The sun was struggling through the fog with a watery smile, and hisfaint beams shone on a confusion of stone piers, higher than thevessel's deck, intersected with canal-like waterways, through whoseintricate windings the steamer was slowly threading her course to thelanding-place. Looking up, Katy could see crowds of people assembled towatch the boat come in, --workmen, peasants, women, children, soldiers, custom-house officers, moving to and fro, --and all this crowd weretalking all at once and all were talking French!

I don't know why this should have startled her as it did. She knew, ofcourse, that people of different countries were liable to be foundspeaking their own languages; but somehow the spectacle of thechattering multitude, all seeming so perfectly at ease with theirpreterits and subjunctives and never once having to refer to Ollendorfor a dictionary, filled her with a sense of dismayed surprise. 

"Good gracious!" she said to herself, "even the babies understand it!"She racked her brains to recall what she had once known of French, butvery little seemed to have survived the horrors of the night!

"Oh dear! what is the word for trunk-key?" she asked herself. "They willall begin to ask questions, and I shall not have a word to say; and Mrs. Ashe will be even worse off, I know. " She saw the red-trouseredcustom-house officers pounce upon the passengers as they landed one byone, and she felt her heart sink within her. 

But after all, when the time came it did not prove so very bad. Katy'spleasant looks and courteous manner stood her in good stead. She did nottrust herself to say much; but the officials seemed to understandwithout saying. They bowed and gestured, whisked the keys in and out, and in a surprisingly short time all was pronounced right, the baggagehad "passed, " and it and its owners were free to proceed to therailway-station, which fortunately was close at hand. 

Inquiry revealed the fact that no train for Paris left till four in theafternoon. 

"I am rather glad, " declared poor Mrs. Ashe, "for I feel too used up tomove. I will lie here on this sofa; and, Katy dear, please see if thereis an eating-place, and get some breakfast for yourself and Amy, andsend me a cup of tea. "

"I don't like to leave you alone, " Katy was beginning; but at thatmoment a nice old woman who seemed to be in charge of the waiting-roomappeared, and with a flood of French which none of them could follow, but which was evidently sympathetic in its nature, flew at Mrs. Ashe andbegan to make her comfortable. From a cupboard in the wall she produceda pillow, from another cupboard a blanket; in a trice she had one underMrs. Ashe's head and the other wrapped round her feet. 

"Pauvre madame, " she said, "si pâle! si souffrante! Il faut avoirquelque chose à boire et à manger tout de suite. " She trotted across theroom and into the restaurant which opened out of it, while Mrs. Ashesmiled at Katy and said, "You see you can leave me quite safely; I am tobe taken care of. " And Katy and Amy passed through the same door intothe _buffet_, and sat down at a little table. 

It was a particularly pleasant-looking place to breakfast in. There weremany windows with bright polished panes and very clean short muslincurtains, and on the window-sills stood rows of thrifty potted plants infull bloom, --marigolds, balsams, nasturtiums, and many coloredgeraniums. Two birds in cages were singing loudly; the floor was waxedto a glass-like polish; nothing could have been whiter than the marbleof the tables except the napkins laid over them. And such a goodbreakfast as was presently brought to them, --delicious coffee inbowl-like cups, crisp rolls and rusks, an omelette with a delicateflavor of fine herbs, stewed chicken, little pats of freshly churnedbutter without salt, shaped like shells and tasting like solidifiedcream, and a pot of some sort of nice preserve. Amy made great delightedeyes at Katy, and remarking, "I think France is heaps nicer than thatold England, " began to eat with a will; and Katy herself felt that ifthis railroad meal was a specimen of what they had to expect in thefuture, they had indeed come to a land of plenty. 

Fortified with the satisfactory breakfast, she felt equal to a walk; andafter they had made sure that Mrs. Ashe had all she needed, she and Amy(and Mabel) set off by themselves to see the sights of Dieppe. I don'tknow that travellers generally have considered Dieppe an interestingplace, but Katy found it so. There was a really old church and somequaint buildings of the style of two centuries back, and even the moremodern streets had a novel look to her unaccustomed eyes. At first theyonly ventured a timid turn or two, marking each corner, and going backnow and then to reassure themselves by a look at the station; but aftera while, growing bolder, Katy ventured to ask a question or two inFrench, and was surprised and charmed to find herself understood. Afterthat she grew adventurous, and, no longer fearful of being lost, led Amystraight down a long street lined with shops, almost all of which werefor the sale of articles in ivory. 

Ivory wares are one of the chief industries of Dieppe. There were casesfull, windows full, counters full, of the most exquisite combs andbrushes, some with elaborate monograms in silver and colors, othersplain; there were boxes and caskets of every size and shape, ornaments, fans, parasol handles, looking-glasses, frames for pictures large andsmall, napkin-rings. 

Katy was particularly smitten with a paper-knife in the form of an angelwith long slender wings raised over its head and meeting to form apoint. Its price was twenty francs, and she was strongly tempted to buyit for Clover or Rose Red. But she said to herself sensibly, "This isthe first shop I have been into and the first thing I have really wantedto buy, and very likely as we go on I shall see things I like better andwant more, so it would be foolish to do it. No, I won't. " And sheresolutely turned her back on the ivory angel, and walked away. 

The next turn brought them to a gay-looking little market-place, whereold women in white caps were sitting on the ground beside baskets andpanniers full of apples, pears, and various queer and curly vegetables, none of which Katy recognized as familiar; fish of all shapes and colorswere flapping in shallow tubs of sea-water; there were piles ofstockings, muffetees, and comforters in vivid blue and red worsted, andcoarse pottery glazed in bright patterns. The faces of the women werebrown and wrinkled; there were no pretty ones among them, but theirblack eyes were full of life and quickness, and their fingers one andall clicked with knitting-needles, as their tongues flew equally fast inthe chatter and the chaffer, which went on without stop or stay, thoughcustomers did not seem to be many and sales were few. 

Returning to the station they found that Mrs. Ashe had been asleepduring their absence, and seemed so much better that it was with greatlyamended spirits that they took their places in the late afternoon trainwhich was to set them down at Rouen. Katy said they were like the WiseMen of the East, "following a star, " in their choice of a hotel; for, having no better advice, they had decided upon one of those thusdistinguished in Baedeker's Guide-book. 

The star did not betray their confidence; for the Hôtel de la Cloche, towhich it led them, proved to be quaint and old, and very pleasant ofaspect. The lofty chambers, with their dimly frescoed ceilings, and bedscurtained with faded patch, might to all appearances have been furnishedabout the time when "Columbus crossed the ocean blue;" but everythingwas clean, and had an air of old-time respectability. The dining-room, which was evidently of more modern build, opened into a square courtyardwhere oleanders and lemon trees in boxes stood round the basin of alittle fountain, whose tinkle and plash blended agreeably with therattle of the knives and forks. In one corner of the room was a raisedand railed platform, where behind a desk sat the mistress of the house, busy with her account-books, but keeping an eye the while on all thatwent forward. 

Mrs. Ashe walked past this personage without taking any notice of her, as Americans are wont to do under such circumstances; but presently theobservant Katy noticed that every one else, as they went in or out ofthe room, addressed a bow or a civil remark to this lady. She quiteblushed at the recollection afterward, as she made ready for bed. 

"How rude we must have seemed!" she thought. "I am afraid the peoplehere think that Americans have _awful_ manners, everybody is so polite. They said 'Bon soir' and 'Merci' and 'Voulez-vous avoir la bonté, ' tothe waiters even! Well, there is one thing, --I am going to reform. To-morrow I will be as polite as anybody. They will think that I ammiraculously improved by one night on French soil; but, never mind! I amgoing to do it. "

She kept her resolution, and astonished Mrs. Ashe next morning, bybowing to the dame on the platform in the most winning manner, andsaying, "Bon jour, madame, " as they went by. 

"But, Katy, who is that person? Why do you speak to her?"

"Don't you see that they all do? She is the landlady, I think; at allevents, everybody bows to her. And just notice how prettily these ladiesat the next table speak to the waiter. They do not order him to dothings as we do at home. I noticed it last night, and I liked it so muchthat I made a resolution to get up and be as polite as the Frenchthemselves this morning. "

So all the time that they went about the sumptuous old city, rich incarvings and sculptures and traditions, while they were looking at theCathedral and the wonderful church of St. Ouen, and the Palace ofJustice, and the "Place of the Maid, " where poor Jeanne d'Arc was burnedand her ashes scattered to the winds, Katy remembered her manners, andsmiled and bowed, and used courteous prefixes in a soft pleasant voice;and as Mrs. Ashe and Amy fell in with her example more or less, I thinkthe guides and coachmen and the old women who showed them over thebuildings felt that the air of France was very civilizing indeed, andthat these strangers from savage countries over the sea were in a fairway to be as well bred as if they had been born in a more favored partof the world!

Paris looked very modern after the peculiar quaint richness and air ofthe Middle Ages which distinguish Rouen. Rooms had been engaged forMrs. Ashe's party in a _pension_ near the Arc d'Étoile, and there theydrove immediately on arriving. The rooms were not in the _pension_itself, but in a house close by, --a sitting-room with six mirrors, three clocks, and a pinched little grate about a foot wide, adining-room just large enough for a table and four chairs, and twobedrooms. A maid called Amandine had been detailed to take charge ofthese rooms and serve their meals. 

Dampness, as Katy afterward wrote to Clover, was the first impressionthey received of "gay Paris. " The tiny fire in the tiny grate had onlyjust been lighted, and the walls and the sheets and even the blanketsfelt chilly and moist to the touch. They spent their first evening inhanging the bedclothes round the grate and piling on fuel; they even setthe mattresses up on edge to warm and dry! It was not very enlivening, it must be confessed. Amy had taken a cold, Mrs. Ashe looked worried, and Katy thought of Burnet and the safety and comfort of home with athrob of longing. 

The days that ensued were not brilliant enough to remove thisimpression. The November fogs seemed to have followed them across theChannel, and Paris remained enveloped in a wet blanket which dimmed andhid its usually brilliant features. Going about in cabs with the windowsdrawn up, and now and then making a rush through the drip into shops, was not exactly delightful, but it seemed pretty much all that theycould do. It was worse for Amy, whose cold kept her indoors and deniedher even the relaxation of the cab. Mrs. Ashe had engaged awell-recommended elderly English maid to come every morning and takecare of Amy while they were out; and with this respectable functionary, whose ideas were of a rigidly British type and who did not speak a wordof any language but her own, poor Amy was compelled to spend most of hertime. Her only consolation was in persuading this serene attendant totake a part in the French lessons which she made a daily point of givingto Mabel out of her own little phrase-book. 

"Wilkins is getting on, I think, " she told Katy one night. "She says'Biscuit glacé' quite nicely now. But I never will let her look at thebook, though she always wants to; for if once she saw how the words arespelled, she would never in the world pronounce them right again. Theylook so very different, you know. "

Katy looked at Amy's pale little face and eager eyes with a realheartache. Her rapture when at the end of the long dull afternoons hermother returned to her was touching. Paris was very _triste_ to poorAmy, with all her happy facility for amusing herself; and Katy felt thatthe sooner they got away from it the better it would be. So, in spite ofthe delight which her brief glimpses at the Louvre gave her, and the funit was to go about with Mrs. Ashe and see her buy pretty things, and thereal satisfaction she took in the one perfectly made walking-suit towhich she had treated herself, she was glad when the final day came, when the belated dressmakers and artistes in jackets and wraps had senthome their last wares, and the trunks were packed. It had been ratherthe fault of circumstances than of Paris; but Katy had not learned tolove the beautiful capital as most Americans do, and did not feel at allas if she wanted that her "reward of virtue" should be to go there whenshe died! There must be more interesting places for live people, andghosts too, to be found on the map of Europe, she was sure. 

Next morning as they drove slowly down the Champs Élysées, andlooked back for a last glimpse of the famous Arch, a bright objectmet their eyes, moving vaguely against the mist. It was the gay redwagon of the Bon Marché, carrying bundles home to the dwellers ofsome up-town street. 

Katy burst out laughing. "It is an emblem of Paris, " she said, --"of ourParis, I mean. It has been all Bon Marché and fog!"

"Miss Katy, " interrupted Amy, "_do_ you like Europe? For my part, I wasnever so disgusted with any place in my life!"

"Poor little bird, her views of 'Europe' are rather dark just now, andno wonder, " said her mother. "Never mind, darling, you shall havesomething pleasanter by and by if I can find it for you. "

"Burnet is a great deal pleasanter than Paris, " pronounced Amy, decidedly. "It doesn't keep always raining there, and I can take walks, and I understand everything that people say. "

All that day they sped southward, and with every hour came a change inthe aspect of their surroundings. Now they made brief stops in largebusy towns which seemed humming with industry. Now they whirled throughgrape countries with miles of vineyards, where the brown leaves stillhung on the vines. Then again came glimpses of old Roman ruins, amphitheatres, viaducts, fragments of wall or arch; or a sudden chillbetokened their approach to mountains, where snowy peaks could be seenon the far horizon. And when the long night ended and day roused themfrom broken slumbers, behold, the world was made over! Autumn hadvanished, and the summer, which they thought fled for good, had takenhis place. Green woods waved about them, fresh leaves were blowing inthe wind, roses and hollyhocks beckoned from white-walled gardens; andbefore they had done with exclaiming and rejoicing, the Mediterraneanshot into view, intensely blue, with white fringes of foam, white sailsblowing across, white gulls flying above it, and over all a sky of thesame exquisite blue, whose clouds were white as the drifting sails onthe water below, and they were at Marseilles. 

It was like a glimpse of Paradise to eyes fresh from autumnal grays andglooms, as they sped along the lovely coast, every curve and turnshowing new combinations of sea and shore, olive-crowned cliff andshining mountain-peak. With every mile the blue became bluer, the windsofter, the feathery verdure more dense and summer-like. Hyères andCannes and Antibes were passed, and then, as they rounded a long point, came the view of a sunshiny city lying on a sunlit shore; the trainslackened its speed, and they knew that their journey's end was come andthey were in Nice. 

The place seemed to laugh with gayety as they drove down the Promenadedes Anglais and past the English garden, where the band was playingbeneath the acacias and palm-trees. On one side was a line ofbright-windowed hotels and _pensions_, with balconies and stripedawnings; on the other, the long reach of yellow sand-beach, where ladieswere grouped on shawls and rugs, and children ran up and down in thesun, while beyond stretched the waveless sea. The December sun felt aswarm as on a late June day at home, and had the same soft caressingtouch. The pavements were thronged with groups of leisurely-lookingpeople, all wearing an unmistakable holiday aspect; pretty girls incorrect Parisian costumes walked demurely beside their mothers, withcavaliers in attendance; and among these young men appeared now andagain the well-known uniform of the United States Navy. 

"I wonder, " said Mrs. Ashe, struck by a sudden thought, "if by anychance our squadron is here. " She asked the question the moment theyentered the hotel; and the porter, who prided himself on understanding"zose Eenglesh, " replied, --

"Mais oui, Madame, ze Americaine fleet it is here; zat is, not here, but at Villefranche, just a leetle four mile away, --it is ze samezing exactly. "

"Katy, do you hear that?" cried Mrs. Ashe. "The frigates _are_ here, andthe 'Natchitoches' among them of course; and we shall have Ned to goabout with us everywhere. It is a real piece of good luck for us. Ladiesare at such a loss in a place like this with nobody to escort them. I amperfectly delighted. "

"So am I, " said Katy. "I never saw a frigate, and I always wanted to seeone. Do you suppose they will let us go on board of them?"

"Why, of course they will. " Then to the porter, "Give me a sheetof paper and an envelope, please. --I must let Ned know that I amhere at once. "

Mrs. Ashe wrote her note and despatched it before they went upstairs totake off their bonnets. She seemed to have a half-hope that some bird ofthe air might carry the news of her arrival to her brother, for she keptrunning to the window as if in expectation of seeing him. She was toorestless to lie down or sleep, and after she and Katy had lunched, proposed that they should go out on the beach for a while. 

"Perhaps we may come across Ned, " she remarked. 

They did not come across Ned, but there was no lack of otherdelightful objects to engage their attention. The sands were smoothand hard as a floor. Soft pink lights were beginning to tinge thewestern sky. To the north shone the peaks of the maritime Alps, andthe same rosy glow caught them here and there, and warmed their graysand whites into color. 

"I wonder what that can be?" said Katy, indicating the rocky point whichbounded the beach to the east, where stood a picturesque building ofstone, with massive towers and steep pitches of roof. "It looks halflike a house and half like a castle, but it is quite fascinating, Ithink. Do you suppose that people live there?"

"We might ask, " suggested Mrs. Ashe. 

Just then they came to a shallow river spanned by a bridge, beside whosepebbly bed stood a number of women who seemed to be washing clothes bythe simple and primitive process of laying them in the water on top ofthe stones, and pounding them with a flat wooden paddle till they werewhite. Katy privately thought that the clothes stood a poor chance oflasting through these cleansing operations; but she did not say so, andmade the inquiry which Mrs. Ashe had suggested, in her best French. 

"Celle-là?" answered the old woman whom she had addressed. "Mais c'estla Pension Suisse. "

"A _pension_; why, that means a boarding-house, " cried Katy. "What funit must be to board there!"

"Well, why shouldn't we board there!" said her friend. "You know wemeant to look for rooms as soon as we were rested and had found out alittle about the place. Let us walk on and see what the Pension Suisseis like. If the inside is as pleasant as the outside, we could not dobetter, I should think. "

"Oh, I do hope all the rooms are not already taken, " said Katy, who hadfallen in love at first sight with the Pension Suisse. She felt quiteoppressed with anxiety as they rang the bell. 

The Pension Suisse proved to be quite as charming inside as out. Thethick stone walls made deep sills and embrasures for the casementwindows, which were furnished with red cushions to serve as seats andlounging-places. Every window seemed to command a view, for those whichdid not look toward the sea looked toward the mountains. The house wasby no means full, either. Several sets of rooms were to be had; and Katyfelt as if she had walked straight into the pages of a romance When Mrs. Ashe engaged for a month a delightful suite of three, a sitting-room andtwo sleeping-chambers, in a round tower, with a balcony overhanging thewater, and a side window, from which a flight of steps led down into alittle walled garden, nestled in among the masonry, where talllaurestinus and lemon trees grew, and orange and brown wallflowers madethe air sweet. Her contentment knew no bounds. 

"I am so glad that I came, " she told Mrs. Ashe. "I never confessed it toyou before; but sometimes. --when we were sick at sea, you know, and whenit would rain all the time, and after Amy caught that cold in Paris--Ihave almost wished, just for a minute or two at a time, that we hadn't. But now I wouldn't not have come for the world! This is perfectlydelicious. I am glad, glad, glad we are here, and we are going to have alovely time, I know. "

They were passing out of the rooms into the hall as she said thesewords, and two ladies who were walking up a cross passage turned theirheads at the sound of her voice. To her great surprise Katy recognizedMrs. Page and Lilly. 

"Why, Cousin Olivia, is it you?" she cried, springing forward withthe cordiality one naturally feels in seeing a familiar face in aforeign land. 

Mrs. Page seemed rather puzzled than cordial. She put up her eyeglassand did not seem to quite make out who Katy was. 

"It is Katy Carr, mamma, " explained Lilly. "Well, Katy, this _is_ asurprise! Who would have thought of meeting you in Nice!"

There was a decided absence of rapture in Lilly's manner. She wasprettier than ever, as Katy saw in a moment, and beautifully dressed insoft brown velvet, which exactly suited her complexion and herpale-colored wavy hair. 

"Katy Carr! why, so it is, " admitted Mrs. Page. "It is a surpriseindeed. We had no idea that you were abroad. What has brought you so farfrom Tunket, --Burnet, I mean? Who are you with?"

"With my friend Mrs. Ashe, " explained Katy, rather chilled by this coolreception. 

"Let me introduce you. Mrs. Ashe, these are my cousins Mrs. Page andMiss Page. Amy, --why where is Amy?"

Amy had walked back to the door of the garden staircase, and wasstanding there looking down upon the flowers. 

Cousin Olivia bowed rather distantly. Her quick eye took in the detailsof Mrs. Ashe's travelling-dress and Katy's dark blue ulster. 

"Some countrified friend from that dreadful Western town where theylive, " she said to herself. "How foolish of Philip Carr to try to sendhis girls to Europe! He can't afford it, I know. " Her voice was ratherrigid as she inquired, --

"And what brings you here?--to this house, I mean?"

"Oh, we are coming to-morrow to stay; we have taken rooms for a month, "explained Katy. "What a delicious-looking old place it is. "

"Have you?" said Lilly, in a voice which did not express any particularpleasure. "Why, we are staying here too. "

CHAPTER VII. 

THE PENSION SUISSE. 

"What do you suppose can have brought Katy Carr to Europe?" inquiredLilly, as she stood in the window watching the three figures walk slowlydown the sands. "She is the last person I expected to turn up here. Isupposed she was stuck in that horrid place--what is the name ofit?--where they live, for the rest of her life. "

"I confess I am surprised at meeting her myself, " rejoined Mrs. Page. "Ihad no idea that her father could afford so expensive a journey. "

"And who is this woman that she has got along with her?"

"I have no idea, I'm sure. Some Western friend, I suppose. "

"Dear me, I wish they were going to some other house than this, " saidLilly, discontentedly. "If they were at the Rivoir, for instance, or oneof those places at the far end of the beach, we shouldn't need to seeanything of them, or even know that they were in town! It's a realnuisance to have people spring upon you this way, people you don't wantto meet; and when they happen to be relations it is all the worse. Katywill be hanging on us all the time, I'm afraid. "

"Oh, my dear, there is no fear of that. A little repression on our partwill prevent her from being any trouble, I'm quite certain. But we_must_ treat her politely, you know, Lilly; her father is my cousin. "

"That's the saddest part of it! Well, there's one thing, I shall _not_take her with me every time we go to the frigates, " said Lilly, decisively. "I am not going to inflict a country cousin on LieutenantWorthington, and spoil all my own fun beside. So I give you fairwarning, mamma, and you must manage it somehow. "

"Certainly, dear, I will. It would be a great pity to have your visit toNice spoiled in any way, with the squadron here too, and that pleasantMr. Worthington so very attentive. "

Unconscious of these plans for her suppression, Katy walked back to thehotel in a mood of pensive pleasure. Europe at last promised to be asdelightful as it had seemed when she only knew it from maps and books, and Nice so far appeared to her the most charming place in the world. 

Somebody was waiting for them at the Hotel des Anglais, --a tall, bronzed, good-looking somebody in uniform, with pleasant brown eyesbeaming from beneath a gold-banded cap; at the sight of whom Amy rushedforward with her long locks flying, and Mrs. Ashe uttered an exclamationof pleasure. It was Ned Worthington, Mrs. Ashe's only brother, whom shehad not met for two years and a half; and you can easily imagine howglad she was to see him. 

"You got my note then?" she said after the first eager greetings wereover and she had introduced him to Katy. 

"Note? No. Did you write me a note?"

"Yes; to Villefranche. "

"To the ship? I shan't get that till tomorrow. No; finding out that youwere here is just a bit of good fortune. I came over to call on somefriends who are staying down the beach a little way, and dropping in tolook over the list of arrivals, as I generally do, I saw your names; andthe porter not being able to say which way you had gone, I waited foryou to come in. "

"We have been looking at such a delightful old place, the PensionSuisse, and have taken rooms. "

"The Pension Suisse, eh? Why, that was where I was going to call. I knowsome people who are staying there. It seems a pleasant house; I'm gladyou are going there, Polly. It's first-rate luck that the ships happento be here just now. I can see you every day. "

"But, Ned, surely you are not leaving me so soon? Surely you will stayand dine with us?" urged his sister, as he took up his cap. 

"I wish I could, but I can't to-night, Polly. You see I had engaged totake some ladies out to drive, and they will expect me. I had no ideathat you would be here, or I should have kept myself free, "apologetically. "Tomorrow I will come over early, and be at your servicefor whatever you like to do. "

"That's right, dear boy. We shall expect you. " Then, the moment he wasgone, "Now, Katy, isn't he nice?"

"Very nice, I should think, " said Katy, who had watched the briefinterview with interest. "I like his face so much, and how fond heis of you!"

"Dear fellow! so he is. I am seven years older than he, but we havealways been intimate. Brothers and sisters are not always intimate, youknow, --or perhaps you don't know, for all of yours are. "

"Yes, indeed, " said Katy, with a happy smile. "There is nobody likeClover and Elsie, except perhaps Johnnie and Dorry and Phil, " she addedwith a laugh. 

The remove to the Pension Suisse was made early the next morning. Mrs. Page and Lilly did not appear to welcome them. Katy rather rejoiced intheir absence, for she wanted the chance to get into order withoutinterruptions. 

There was something comfortable in the thought that they were to stay awhole month in these new quarters; for so long a time, it seemed worthwhile to make them pretty and homelike. So, while Mrs. Ashe unpacked herown belongings and Amy's, Katy, who had a natural turn for arrangingrooms, took possession of the little parlor, pulled the furniture intonew positions, laid out portfolios and work-cases and their few books, pinned various photographs which they had bought in Oxford and London onthe walls, and tied back the curtains to admit the sunshine. Then shepaid a visit to the little garden, and came back with a long branch oflaurestinus, which she trained across the mantelpiece, and a bunch ofwallflowers for their one little vase. The maid, by her orders, laid afire of wood and pine cones ready for lighting; and when all was doneshe called Mrs. Ashe to pronounce upon the effect. 

"It is lovely, " she said, sinking into a great velvet arm-chair whichKaty had drawn close to the seaward window. "I haven't seen anything sopleasant since we left home. You are a witch, Katy, and the comfort ofmy life. I am so glad I brought you! Now, pray go and unpack your ownthings, and make yourself look nice for the second breakfast. We havebeen a shabby set enough since we arrived. I saw those cousins of yourslooking askance at our old travelling-dresses yesterday. Let us try tomake a more respectable impression to-day. "

So they went down to breakfast, Mrs. Ashe in one of her new Paris gowns, Katy in a pretty dress of olive serge, and Amy all smiles and ruffledpinafore, walking hand in hand with her uncle Ned, who had just arrivedand whose great ally she was; and Mrs. Page and Lilly, who were alreadyseated at table, had much ado to conceal their somewhat unflatteringsurprise at the conjunction. For one moment Lilly's eyes opened into awide stare of incredulous astonishment; then she remembered herself, nodded as pleasantly as she could to Mrs. Ashe and Katy, and favoredLieutenant Worthington with a pretty blushing smile as he went by, whileshe murmured, --

"Mamma, do you see that? What does it mean?"

"Why, Ned, do you know those people?" asked Mrs. Ashe at the samemoment. 

"Do _you_ know them!"

"Yes; we met yesterday. They are connections of my friend Miss Carr. "

"Really? There is not the least family likeness between them. " And Mr. Worthington's eyes travelled deliberately from Lilly's delicate, goldenprettiness to Katy, who, truth to say, did not shine by the contrast. 

"She has a nice, sensible sort of face, " he thought, "and she looks likea lady, but for beauty there is no comparison between the two. " Then heturned to listen to his sister as she replied, --

"No, indeed, not the least; no two girls could be less like. " Mrs. Ashehad made the same comparison, but with quite a different result. Katy'sface was grown dear to her, and she had not taken the smallest fancy toLilly Page. 

Her relationship to the young naval officer, however, made a wonderfuldifference in the attitude of Mrs. Page and Lilly toward the party. Katybecame a person to be cultivated rather than repressed, andthenceforward there was no lack of cordiality on their part. 

"I want to come in and have a good talk, " said Lilly, slipping her armthrough Katy's as they left the dining-room. "Mayn't I come now whilemamma is calling on Mrs. Ashe?" This arrangement brought her to the sideof Lieutenant Worthington, and she walked between him and Katy down thehall and into the little drawing-room. 

"Oh, how perfectly charming! You have been fixing up ever since youcame, haven't you? It looks like home. I wish we had a _salon_, butmamma thought it wasn't worth while, as we were only to be here such alittle time. What a delicious balcony over the water, too! May I go outon it? Oh, Mr. Worthington, do see this!"

She pushed open the half-closed window and stepped out as she spoke. Mr. Worthington, after hesitating a moment, followed. Katy paused uncertain. There was hardly room for three in the balcony, yet she did not quitelike to leave them. But Lilly had turned her back, and was talking in alow tone; it was nothing more in reality than the lightest chit-chat, but it had the air of being something confidential; so Katy, afterwaiting a little while, retreated to the sofa, and took up her work, joining now and then in the conversation which Mrs. Ashe was keeping upwith Cousin Olivia. She did not mind Lilly's ill-breeding, nor was shesurprised at it. Mrs. Ashe was less tolerant. 

"Isn't it rather damp out there, Ned?" she called to her brother; "youhad better throw my shawl round Miss Page's shoulders. "

"Oh, it isn't a bit damp, " said Lilly, recalled to herself by this broadhint. "Thank you so much for thinking of it, Mrs. Ashe, but I am justcoming in. " She seated herself beside Katy, and began to question herrather languidly. 

"When did you leave home, and how were they all when you came away?"

"All well, thank you. We sailed from Boston on the 14th of October; andbefore that I spent two days with Rose Red, --you remember her? She ismarried now, and has the dearest little home and such a darling baby. "

"Yes, I heard of her marriage. It didn't seem much of a match for Mr. Redding's daughter to make, did it? I never supposed she would besatisfied with anything less than a member of Congress or a Secretary ofLegation. "

"Rose isn't particularly ambitious, I think, and she seems perfectlyhappy, " replied Katy, flushing. 

"Oh, you needn't fire up in her defence; you and Clover always did adoreRose Red, I know, but I never could see what there was about her thatwas so wonderfully fascinating. She never had the least style, and shewas always just as rude to me as she could be. "

"You were not intimate at school, but I am sure Rose was never rude, "said Katy, with spirit. 

"Well, we won't fight about her at this late day. Tell me where you havebeen, and where you are going, and how long you are to stay in Europe. "

Katy, glad to change the subject, complied, and the conversationdiverged into comparison of plans and experiences. Lilly had been inEurope nearly a year, and had seen "almost everything, " as she phrasedit. She and her mother had spent the previous winter in Italy, had takena run into Russia, "done" Switzerland and the Tyrol thoroughly, andFrance and Germany, and were soon going into Spain, and from there toParis, to shop in preparation for their return home in the spring. 

"Of course we shall want quantities of things, " she said. "No one willbelieve that we have been abroad unless we bring home a lot of clothes. The _lingerie_ and all that is ordered already; but the dresses must bemade at the last moment, and we shall have a horrid time of it, Isuppose. Worth has promised to make me two walking-suits and twoball-dresses, but he's very bad about keeping his word. Did you do muchwhen you were in Paris, Katy?"

"We went to the Louvre three times, and to Versailles and St. Cloud, "said Katy, wilfully misunderstanding her. 

"Oh, I didn't mean that kind of stupid thing; I meant gowns. Whatdid you buy?"

"One tailor-made suit of dark blue cloth. "

"My! what moderation!"

Shopping played a large part in Lilly's reminiscences. She recollectedplaces, not from their situation or beauty or historical associations, or because of the works of art which they contained, but as the placeswhere she bought this or that. 

"Oh, that dear Piazza di Spagna!" she would say; "that was where Ifound my rococo necklace, the loveliest thing you ever saw, Katy. " Or, "Prague--oh yes, mother got the most enchanting old silver chatelainethere, with all kinds of things hanging to it, --needlecases and watchesand scent-bottles, all solid, and so beautifully chased. " Or again, "Berlin was horrid, we thought; but the amber is better and cheaperthan anywhere else, --great strings of beads, of the largest size andthat beautiful pale yellow, for a hundred francs. You must get yourselfone, Katy. "

Poor Lilly! Europe to her was all "things. " She had collected trunksfull of objects to carry home, but of the other collections which do notgo into trunks, she had little or none. Her mind was as empty, her heartas untouched as ever; the beauty and the glory and the pathos of art andhistory and Nature had been poured out in vain before her closed andindifferent eyes. 

Life soon dropped into a peaceful routine at the Pension Suisse, whichwas at the same time restful and stimulating. Katy's first act in themorning, as soon as she opened her eyes, was to hurry to the window inhopes of getting a glimpse of Corsica. She had discovered that thiselusive island could almost always be seen from Nice at the dawning, butthat as soon as the sun was fairly up, it vanished to appear no more forthe rest of the day. There was something fascinating to her imaginationin the hovering mountain outline between sea and sky. She felt as if shewere under an engagement to be there to meet it, and she rarely missedthe appointment. Then, after Corsica had pulled the bright mists overits face and melted from view, she would hurry with her dressing, and assoon as was practicable set to work to make the _salon_ look brightbefore the coffee and rolls should appear, a little after eight o'clock. Mrs. Ashe always found the fire lit, the little meal cosily set outbeside it, and Katy's happy untroubled face to welcome her when sheemerged from her room; and the cheer of these morning repasts made agood beginning for the day. 

Then came walking and a French lesson, and a long sitting on the beach, while Katy worked at her home letters and Amy raced up and down in thesun; and then toward noon Lieutenant Ned generally appeared, and somescheme of pleasure was set on foot. Mrs. Ashe ignored his evident_penchant_ for Lilly Page, and claimed his time and attentions as hersby right. Young Worthington was a good deal "taken" with the prettyLilly; still, he had an old-time devotion for his sister and the habitof doing what she desired, and he yielded to her behests with no audibleobjections. He made a fourth in the carriage while they drove over thelovely hills which encircle Nice toward the north, to Cimiers and theVal de St. André, or down the coast toward Ventimiglia. He went withthem to Monte-Carlo and Mentone, and was their escort again and againwhen they visited the great war-ships as they lay at anchor in a baywhich in its translucent blue was like an enormous sapphire. 

Mrs. Page and her daughter were included in these parties more thanonce; but there was something in Mrs. Ashe's cool appropriation of herbrother which was infinitely vexatious to Lilly, who before herarrival had rather looked upon Lieutenant Worthington as her ownespecial property. 

"I wish _that_ Mrs. Ashe had stayed at home, " she told her mother. "Shequite spoils everything. Mr. Worthington isn't half so nice as he wasbefore she came. I do believe she has a plan for making him fall in lovewith Katy; but there she makes a miss of it, for he doesn't seem to careanything about her. "

"Katy is a nice girl enough, " pronounced her mother, "but not of thesort to attract a gay young man, I should fancy. I don't believe _she_is thinking of any such thing. You needn't be afraid, Lilly. "

"I'm not afraid, " said Lilly, with a pout; "only it's so provoking. "

Mrs. Page was quite right. Katy was not thinking of any such thing. Sheliked Ned Worthington's frank manners; she owned, quite honestly, thatshe thought him handsome, and she particularly admired the sort ofdeferential affection which he showed to Mrs. Ashe, and his nice wayswith Amy. For herself, she was aware that he scarcely noticed her exceptas politeness demanded that he should be civil to his sister's friend;but the knowledge did not trouble her particularly. Her head was full ofinteresting things, plans, ideas. She was not accustomed to being madethe object of admiration, and experienced none of the vexations of aneglected belle. If Lieutenant Worthington happened to talk to her, sheresponded frankly and freely; if he did not, she occupied herself withsomething else; in either case she was quite unembarrassed both infeeling and manner, and had none of the awkwardness which comes fromdisappointed vanity and baffled expectations, and the need forconcealing them. 

Toward the close of December the officers of the flag-ship gave a ball, which was the great event of the season to the gay world of Nice. Americans were naturally in the ascendant on an American frigate; and ofall the American girls present, Lilly Page was unquestionably theprettiest. Exquisitely dressed in white lace, with bands of turquoiseson her neck and arms and in her hair, she had more partners than sheknew what to do with, more bouquets than she could well carry, andcompliments enough to turn any girl's head. Thrown off her guard by hertriumphs, she indulged a little vindictive feeling which had beengrowing in her mind of late on account of what she chose to considercertain derelictions of duty on the part of Lieutenant Worthington, andtreated him to a taste of neglect. She was engaged three deep when heasked her to dance; she did not hear when he invited her to walk; sheturned a cold shoulder when he tried to talk, and seemed absorbed by theother cavaliers, naval and otherwise, who crowded about her. 

Piqued and surprised, Ned Worthington turned to Katy. She did not dance, saying frankly that she did not know how and was too tall; and she wasrather simply dressed in a pearl-gray silk, which had been her best gownthe winter before in Burnet, with a bunch of red roses in the white laceof the tucker, and another in her hand, both the gifts of little Amy;but she looked pleasant and serene, and there was something about herwhich somehow soothed his disturbed mind, as he offered her his arm fora walk on the decks. 

For a while they said little, and Katy was quite content to pace up anddown in silence, enjoying the really beautiful scene, --the moonlight onthe Bay, the deep wavering reflections of the dark hulls and slenderspars, the fairy effect of the colored lamps and lanterns, and thebrilliant moving maze of the dancers. 

"Do you care for this sort of thing?" he suddenly asked. 

"What sort of thing do you mean?"

"Oh, all this jigging and waltzing and amusement. "

"I don't know how to 'jig, ' but it's delightful to look on, " sheanswered merrily. "I never saw anything so pretty in my life. "

The happy tone of her voice and the unruffled face which she turned uponhim quieted his irritation. 

"I really believe you mean it, " he said; "and yet, if you won't think merude to say so, most girls would consider the thing dull enough if theywere only getting out of it what you are, --if they were not dancing, Imean, and nobody in particular was trying to entertain them. "

"But everything _is_ being done to entertain me, " cried Katy. "I can'timagine what makes you think that it could seem dull. I am in it all, don't you see, --I have my share--. Oh, I am stupid, I can't make youunderstand. "

"Yes, you do. I understand perfectly, I think; only it is such adifferent point of view from what girls in general would take. " (Bygirls he meant Lilly!) "Please do not think me uncivil. "

"You are not uncivil at all; but don't let us talk any more about me. Look at the lights between the shadows of the masts on the water. Howthey quiver! I never saw anything so beautiful, I think. And how warm itis! I can't believe that we are in December and that it is nearlyChristmas. "

"How is Polly going to celebrate her Christmas? Have you decided?"

"Amy is to have a Christmas-tree for her dolls, and two other dolls arecoming. We went out this morning to buy things for it, --tiny little toysand candles fit for Lilliput. And that reminds me, do you suppose onecan get any Christmas greens here?"

"Why not? The place seems full of green. "

"That's just it; the summer look makes it unnatural. But I should likesome to dress the parlor with if they could be had. "

"I'll see what I can find, and send you a load. "

I don't know why this very simple little talk should have made animpression on Lieutenant Worthington's mind, but somehow he did notforget it. 

"'Don't let us talk any more about me, '" he said to himself that nightwhen alone in his cabin. "I wonder how long it would be before the otherone did anything to divert the talk from herself. Some time, I fancy. "He smiled rather grimly as he unbuckled his sword-belt. It is unluckyfor a girl when she starts a train of reflection like this. Lilly'slittle attempt to pique her admirer had somehow missed its mark. 

The next afternoon Katy in her favorite place on the beach was at workon the long weekly letter which she never failed to send home to Burnet. She held her portfolio in her lap, and her pen ran rapidly over thepaper, as rapidly almost as her tongue would have run could hercorrespondents have been brought nearer. 

 "Nice, December 22. 

 "Dear Papa and everybody, --Amy and I are sitting on my old purple cloak, which is spread over the sand just where it was spread the last time I wrote you. We are playing the following game: I am a fairy and she is a little girl. Another fairy--not sitting on the cloak at present--has enchanted the little girl, and I am telling her various ways by which she can work out her deliverance. At present the task is to find twenty-four dull red pebbles of the same color, failing to do which she is to be changed into an owl. When we began to play, I was the wicked fairy; but Amy objected to that because I am 'so nice, ' so we changed the characters. I wish you could see the glee in her pretty gray eyes over this infantile game, into which she has thrown herself so thoroughly that she half believes in it. 'But I needn't really be changed into an owl! 'she says, with a good deal of anxiety in her voice. 

 "To think that you are shivering in the first snow-storm, or sending the children out with their sleds and india-rubbers to slide! How I wish instead that you were sharing the purple cloak with Amy and me, and could sit all this warm balmy afternoon close to the surf-line which fringes this bluest of blue seas! There is plenty of room for you all. Not many people come down to this end of the beach, and if you were very good we would let you play. 

 "Our life here goes on as delightfully as ever. Nice is very full of people, and there seem to be some pleasant ones among them. Here at the Pension Suisse we do not see a great many Americans. The fellow-boarders are principally Germans and Austrians with a sprinkling of French. (Amy has found her twenty-four red pebbles, so she is let off from being an owl. She is now engaged in throwing them one by one into the sea. Each must hit the water under penalty of her being turned into a Muscovy duck. She doesn't know exactly what a Muscovy duck is, which makes her all the more particular about her shots. ) But, as I was saying, our little _suite_ in the round tower is so on one side of the rest of the Pension that it is as good as having a house of our own. The _salon_ is very bright and sunny; we have two sofas and a square table and a round table and a sort of what-not and two easy-chairs and two uneasy chairs and a lamp of our own and a clock. There is also a sofa-pillow. There's richness for you! We have pinned up all our photographs on the walls, including Papa's and Clovy's and that bad one of Phil and Johnnie making faces at each other, and three lovely red and yellow Japanese pictures on muslin which Rose Red put in my trunk the last thing, for a spot of color. There are some autumn leaves too; and we always have flowers and in the mornings and evenings a fire. 

 "Amy is now finding fifty snow-white pebbles, which when found are to be interred in one common grave among the shingle. If she fails to do this, she is to be changed to an electrical eel. The chief difficulty is that she loses her heart to particular pebbles. 'I can't bury you, ' I hear her saying. 

 "To return, --we have jolly little breakfasts together in the _salon_. They consist of coffee and rolls, and are served by a droll, snappish little _garçon_ with no teeth, and an Italian-French patois which is very hard to understand when he sputters. He told me the other day that he had been a _garçon_ for forty-six years, which seemed rather a long boyhood. 

 "The company, as we meet them at table, are rather entertaining. Cousin Olivia and Lilly are on their best behavior to me because I am travelling with Mrs. Ashe, and Mrs. Ashe is Lieutenant Worthington's sister, and Lieutenant Worthington is Lilly's admirer, and they like him very much. In fact, Lilly has intimated confidentially that she is all but engaged to him; but I am not sure about it, or if that was what she meant; and I fear, if it proves true, that dear Polly will not like it at all. She is quite unmanageable, and snubs Lilly continually in a polite way, which makes me fidgety for fear Lilly will be offended, but she never seems to notice it. Cousin Olivia looks very handsome and gorgeous. She quite takes the color out of the little Russian Countess who sits next to her, and who is as dowdy and meek as if she came from Akron or Binghampton, or any other place where countesses are unknown. Then there are two charming, well-bred young Austrians. The one who sits nearest to me is a 'Candidat' for a Doctorate of Laws, and speaks eight languages well. He has only studied English for the past six weeks, but has made wonderful progress. I wish my French were half as good as his English is already. 

 "There is a very gossiping young woman on the story beneath ours, whom I meet sometimes in the garden, and from her I hear all manner of romantic tales about people in the house. One little French girl is dying of consumption and a broken heart, because of a quarrel with her lover, who is a courier; and the _padrona_, who is young and pretty, and has only been married a few months to our elderly landlord, has a story also. I forget some of the details; but there was a stern parent and an admirer, and a cup of cold poison, and now she says she wishes she were dying of consumption like poor Alphonsine. For all that, she looks quite fat and rosy, and I often see her in her best gown with a great deal of Roman scarf and mosaic jewelry, stationed in the doorway, 'making the Pension look attractive to the passers-by. ' So she has a sense of duty, though she is unhappy. 

 "Amy has buried all her pebbles, and says she is tired of playing fairy. She is now sitting with her head on my shoulder, and professedly studying her French verb for to-morrow, but in reality, I am sorry to say, she is conversing with me about be-headings, --a subject which, since her visit to the Tower, has exercised a horrible fascination over her mind. 'Do people die right away?' she asks. 'Don't they feel one minute, and doesn't it feel awfully?' There is a good deal of blood, she supposes, because there was so much straw laid about the block in the picture of Lady Jane Gray's execution, which enlivened our walls in Paris. On the whole, I am rather glad that a fat little white dog has come waddling down the beach and taken off her attention. 

 "Speaking of Paris seems to renew the sense of fog which we had there. Oh, how enchanting sunshine is after weeks of gloom! I shall never forget how the Mediterranean looked when we saw it first, --all blue, and such a lovely color. There ought, according to Morse's Atlas, to have been a big red letter T on the water about where we were, but I didn't see any. Perhaps they letter it so far out from shore that only people in boats notice it. 

 "Now the dusk is fading, and the odd chill which hides under these warm afternoons begins to be felt. Amy has received a message written on a mysterious white pebble to the effect--"

Katy was interrupted at this point by a crunching step on the gravelbehind her. 

"Good afternoon, " said a voice. "Polly has sent me to fetch you and Amyin. She says it is growing cool. "

"We were just coming, " said Katy, beginning to put away her papers. 

Ned Worthington sat down on the cloak beside her. The distance was nowsteel gray against the sky; then came a stripe of violet, and then abroad sheet of the vivid iridescent blue which one sees on the necks ofpeacocks, which again melted into the long line of flashing surf. 

"See that gull, " he said, "how it drops plumb into the sea, as if boundto go through to China!"

"Mrs. Hawthorne calls skylarks 'little raptures, '" replied Katy. "Sea-gulls seem to me like grown-up raptures. "

"Are you going?" said Lieutenant Worthington in a tone of surprise, as she rose. 

"Didn't you say that Polly wanted us to come in?"

"Why, yes; but it seems too good to leave, doesn't it? Oh, by the way, Miss Carr, I came across a man to-day and ordered your greens. They willbe sent on Christmas Eve. Is that right?"

"Quite right, and we are ever so much obliged to you. " She turned for alast look at the sea, and, unseen by Ned Worthington, formed her lipsinto a "good-night. " Katy had made great friends with the Mediterranean. 

The promised "greens" appeared on the afternoon before Christmas Day, inthe shape of an enormous fagot of laurel and laurestinus and holly andbox; orange and lemon boughs with ripe fruit hanging from them, thickivy tendrils whole yards long, arbutus, pepper tree, and great branchesof acacia, covered with feathery yellow bloom. The man apologized forbringing so little. The gentleman had ordered two francs worth, he said, but this was all he could carry; he would fetch some more if the younglady wished! But Katy, exclaiming with delight over her wealth, wishedno more; so the man departed, and the three friends proceeded to turnthe little _salon_ into a fairy bower. Every photograph and picture waswreathed in ivy, long garlands hung on either side the windows, and thechimney-piece and door-frames became clustering banks of leaf andblossom. A great box of flowers had come with the greens, and bowls offresh roses and heliotrope and carnations were set everywhere; violetsand primroses, gold-hearted brown auriculas, spikes of veronica, all thezones and all the seasons, combining to make the Christmas-tide sweet, and to turn winter topsy-turvy in the little parlor. 

Mabel and Mary Matilda, with their two doll visitors, sat gravely roundthe table, in the laps of their little mistresses; and Katy, putting onan apron and an improvised cap, and speaking Irish very fast, servedthem with a repast of rolls and cocoa, raspberry jam, and deliciouslittle almond cakes. The fun waxed fast and furious; and LieutenantWorthington, coming in with his hands full of parcels for theChristmas-tree, was just in time to hear Katy remark in a strong CountyKerry brogue, --

"Och, thin indade, Miss Amy, and it's no more cake you'll be getting outof me the night. That's four pieces you've ate, and it's little slapeyour poor mother'll git with you a tossin' and tumblin' forenenst herall night long because of your big appetite. "

"Oh, Miss Katy, talk Irish some more!" cried the delighted children. 

"Is it Irish you'd be afther having me talk, when it's me own langwidge, and sorrow a bit of another do I know?" demanded Katy. Then she caughtsight of the new arrival and stopped short with a blush and a laugh. 

"Come in, Mr. Worthington, " she said; "we're at supper, as you see, andI am acting as waitress. "

"Oh, Uncle Ned, please go away, " pleaded Amy, "or Katy will be polite, and not talk Irish any more. "

"Indade, and the less ye say about politeness the betther, when ye'reafther ordering the jantleman out of the room in that fashion!" said thewaitress. Then she pulled off her cap and untied her apron. 

"Now for the Christmas-tree, " she said. 

It was a very little tree, but it bore some remarkable fruits; for inaddition to the "tiny toys and candles fit for Lilliput, " variousparcels were found to have been hastily added at the last moment forvarious people. The "Natchitoches" had lately come from the Levant, anddelightful Oriental confections now appeared for Amy and Mrs. Ashe;Turkish slippers, all gold embroidery; towels, with richly decoratedends in silks and tinsel;--all the pretty superfluities which the Eastholds out to charm gold from the pockets of her Western visitors. Apretty little dagger in agate and silver fell to Katy's share out ofwhat Lieutenant Worthington called his "loot;" and beside, a mostbeautiful specimen of the inlaid work for which Nice is famous, --alooking-glass, with a stand and little doors to close it in, --which wasa present from Mrs. Ashe. It was quite unlike a Christmas Eve at home, but altogether delightful; and as Katy sat next morning on the sand, after the service in the English church, to finish her home letter, andfelt the sun warm on her cheek, and the perfumed air blow past as softlyas in June, she had to remind herself that Christmas is not necessarilysynonymous with snow and winter, but means the great central heat andwarmth, the advent of Him who came to lighten the whole earth. 

A few days after this pleasant Christmas they left Nice. All of themfelt a reluctance to move, and Amy loudly bewailed the necessity. 

"If I could stay here till it is time to go home, I shouldn't behomesick at all, " she declared. 

"But what a pity it would be not to see Italy!" said her mother. "Thinkof Naples and Rome and Venice. "

"I don't want to think about them. It makes me feel as if I was studyinga great long geography lesson, and it tires me so to learn it. "

"Amy, dear, you're not well. "

"Yes, I am, --quite well; only I don't want to go away from Nice. "

"You only have to learn a little bit at a time of your geography lesson, you know, " suggested Katy; "and it's a great deal nicer way to study itthan out of a book. " But though she spoke cheerfully she was consciousthat she shared Amy's reluctance. 

"It's all laziness, " she told herself. "Nice has been so pleasant thatit has spoiled me. "

It was a consolation and made going easier that they were to drive overthe famous Cornice Road as far as San Remo, instead of going to Genoaby rail as most travellers now-a-days do. They departed from thePension Suisse early on an exquisite morning, fair and balmy as June, but with a little zest and sparkle of coolness in the air which made itadditionally delightful. The Mediterranean was of the deepestviolet-blue; a sort of bloom of color seemed to lie upon it. The skywas like an arch of turquoise; every cape and headland shone jewel-likein the golden sunshine. The carriage, as it followed the windings ofthe road cut shelf-like on the cliffs, seemed poised between earth andheaven; the sea below, the mountain summits above, with a fairy worldof verdure between. The journey was like a dream of enchantment andrapidly changing surprises; and when it ended in a quaint hostelry atSan Remo, with palm-trees feathering the Bordighera Point and Corsica, for once seen by day, lying in bold, clear outlines against the sunset, Katy had to admit to herself that Nice, much as she loved it, was notthe only, not even the most beautiful place in Europe. Already she felther horizon growing, her convictions changing; and who should say whatlay beyond?

The next day brought them to Genoa, to a hotel once the stately palaceof an archbishop, where they were lodged, all three together, in anenormous room, so high and broad and long that their three littlecurtained beds set behind a screen of carved wood made no impression onthe space. There were not less than four sofas and double that number ofarm-chairs in the room, besides a couple of monumental wardrobes; but, as Katy remarked, several grand pianos could still have been moved inwithout anybody's feeling crowded. On one side of them lay the port ofGenoa, filled with craft from all parts of the world, and flying theflags of a dozen different nations. From the other they caught glimpsesof the magnificent old city, rising in tier over tier of churches andpalaces and gardens; while nearer still were narrow streets, whichglittered with gold filigree and the shops of jewel-workers. And whilethey went in and out and gazed and wondered, Lilly Page, at the PensionSuisse, was saying, --

"I am so glad that Katy and _that_ Mrs. Ashe are gone. Nothing has beenso pleasant since they came. Lieutenant Worthington is dreadfully stiffand stupid, and seems quite different from what he used to be. But nowthat we have got rid of them it will all come right again. "

"I really don't think that Katy was to blame, " said Mrs. Page. "Shenever seemed to me to be making any effort to attract him. "

"Oh, Katy is sly, " responded Lilly, vindictively. "She never _seems_ todo anything, but somehow she always gets her own way. I suppose shethought I didn't see her keeping him down there on the beach the otherday when he was coming in to call on us, but I did. It was just out ofspite, and because she wanted to vex me; I know it was. "

"Well, dear, she's gone now, and you won't be worried with her again, "said her mother, soothingly. "Don't pout so, Lilly, and wrinkle up yourforehead. It's very unbecoming. "

"Yes, she's gone, " snapped Lilly; "and as she's bound for the East, andwe for the West, we are not likely to meet again, for which I amdevoutly thankful. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

ON THE TRACK OF ULYSSES. 

"We are going to follow the track of Ulysses, " said Katy, with her eyesfixed on the little travelling-map in her guide-book. "Do you realizethat, Polly dear? He and his companions sailed these very seas beforeus, and we shall see the sights they saw, --Circe's Cape and the Isles ofthe Sirens, and Polyphemus himself, perhaps, who knows?"

The "Marco Polo" had just cast off her moorings, and was slowly steamingout of the crowded port of Genoa into the heart of a still rosy sunset. The water was perfectly smooth; no motion could be felt but the engine'sthrob. The trembling foam of the long wake showed glancing points ofphosphorescence here and there, while low on the eastern sky a greatsilver planet burned like a signal lamp. 

"Polyphemus was a horrible giant. I read about him once, and I don'twant to see him, " observed Amy, from her safe protected perch in hermother's lap. 

"He may not be so bad now as he was in those old times. Some missionarymay have come across him and converted him. If he were good, youwouldn't mind his being big, would you?" suggested Katy. 

"N-o, " replied Amy, doubtfully; "but it would take a great lot ofmissionaries to make _him_ good, I should think. One all alone would beafraid to speak to him. We shan't really see him, shall we?"

"I don't believe we shall; and if we stuff cotton in our ears and lookthe other way, we need not hear the sirens sing, " said Katy, who was inthe highest spirits. --"And oh, Polly dear, there is one delightful thingI forgot to tell you about. The captain says he shall stay in Leghornall day to-morrow taking on freight, and we shall have plenty of time torun up to Pisa and see the Cathedral and the Leaning Tower andeverything else. Now, that is something Ulysses didn't do! I am so gladI didn't die of measles when I was little, as Rose Red used to say. " Shegave her book a toss into the air as she spoke, and caught it again asit fell, very much as the Katy Carr of twelve years ago might have done. 

"What a child you are!" said Mrs. Ashe, approvingly; "you never seem outof sorts or tired of things. "

"Out of sorts? I should think not! And pray why should I be, Polly dear?"

Katy had taken to calling her friend "Polly dear" of late, --a trickpicked up half unconsciously from Lieutenant Ned. Mrs. Ashe liked it;it was sisterly and intimate, she said, and made her feel nearerKaty's age. 

"Does the tower really lean?" questioned Amy, --"far over, I mean, sothat we can see it?"

"We shall know to-morrow, " replied Katy. "If it doesn't, I shall loseall my confidence in human nature. "

Katy's confidence in human nature was not doomed to be impaired. Therestood the famous tower, when they reached the Place del Duomo in Pisa, next morning, looking all aslant, exactly as it does in the pictures andthe alabaster models, and seeming as if in another moment it must toppleover, from its own weight, upon their heads. Mrs. Ashe declared that itwas so unnatural that it made her flesh creep; and when she was coaxedup the winding staircase to the top, she turned so giddy that they wereall thankful to get her safely down to firm ground again. She turned herback upon the tower, as they crossed the grassy space to the majesticold Cathedral, saying that if she thought about it any more, she shouldbecome a disbeliever in the attraction of gravitation, which she hadalways been told all respectable people _must_ believe in. 

The guide showed them the lamp swinging by a long slender chain, beforewhich Galileo is said to have sat and pondered while he worked out histheory of the pendulum. This lamp seemed a sort of own cousin to theattraction of gravitation, and they gazed upon it with respect. Thenthey went to the Baptistery to see Niccolo Pisano's magnificent pulpitof creamy marble, a mass of sculpture supported on the backs of lions, and the equally lovely font, and to admire the extraordinary soundwhich their guide evoked from a mysterious echo, with which he seemedto be on intimate terms, for he made it say whatever he would andalmost "answer back. "

It was in coming out of the Baptistery that they met with an adventurewhich Amy could never quite forget. Pisa is the mendicant city of Italy, and her streets are infested with a band of religious beggars who callthemselves the Brethren of the Order of Mercy. They wear loose blackgowns, sandals laced over their bare feet, and black cambric masks withholes, through which their eyes glare awfully; and they carry tin cupsfor the reception of offerings, which they thrust into the faces of allstrangers visiting the city, whom they look upon as their lawful prey. 

As our party emerged from the Baptistery, two of these Brethren espiedthem, and like great human bats came swooping down upon them with longstrides, their black garments flying in the wind, their eyes rollingstrangely behind their masks, and brandishing their alms-cups, which had"Pour les Pauvres" lettered upon them, and gave forth a clapping soundlike a watchman's rattle. There was something terrible in theirappearance and the rushing speed of their movements. Amy screamed andran behind her mother, who visibly shrank. Katy stood her ground; butthe bat-winged fiends in Doré's illustrations to Dante occurred to her, and her fingers trembled as she dropped some money in the cups. 

Even mendicant friars are human. Katy ceased to tremble as she observedthat one of them, as he retreated, walked backward for some distance inorder to gaze longer at Mrs. Ashe, whose cheeks were flushed with brightpink and who was looking particularly handsome. She began to laughinstead, and Mrs. Ashe laughed too; but Amy could not get over theimpression of having been attacked by demons, and often afterwardrecurred with a shudder to the time when those awful black _things_ flewat her and she hid behind mamma. The ghastly pictures of the Triumph ofDeath, which were presently exhibited to them on the walls of the CampoSanto, did not tend to reassure her, and it was with quite a pale, scared little face that she walked toward the hotel where they were tolunch, and she held fast to Katy's hand. 

Their way led them through a narrow street inhabited by the poorerclasses, --a dusty street with high shabby buildings on either side andwide doorways giving glimpses of interior courtyards, where emptyhogsheads and barrels and rusty caldrons lay, and great wooden trays ofmacaroni were spread out in the sun to dry. Some of the macaroni wasgray, some white, some yellow; none of it looked at all desirable toeat, as it lay exposed to the dust, with long lines of ill-washedclothes flapping above on wires stretched from one house to another. Asis usual in poor streets, there were swarms of children; and theappearance of little Amy with her long bright hair falling over hershoulders and Mabel clasped in her arms created a great sensation. Thechildren in the street shouted and exclaimed, and other children withinthe houses heard the sounds and came trooping out, while mothers andolder sisters peeped from the doorways. The very air seemed full ofeager faces and little brown and curly heads bobbing up and down withexcitement, and black eyes all fixed upon big beautiful Mabel, who withher thick wig of flaxen hair, her blue velvet dress and jacket, feathered hat, and little muff, seemed to them like some strange smallmarvel from another world. They could not decide whether she was aliving child or a make-believe one, and they dared not come near enoughto find out; so they clustered at a little distance, pointed with theirfingers, and whispered and giggled, while Amy, much pleased with theadmiration shown for her darling, lifted Mabel up to view. 

At last one droll little girl with a white cap on her round head seemedto make up _her_ mind, and darting indoors returned with her doll, --apoor little image of wood, its only garment a coarse shirt of redcotton. This she held out for Amy to see. Amy smiled for the first timesince her encounter with the bat-like friars; and Katy, taking Mabelfrom her, made signs that the two dolls should kiss each other. Butthough the little Italian screamed with laughter at the idea of a_bacio_ between two dolls, she would by no means allow it, and hid hertreasure behind her back, blushing and giggling, and saying somethingvery fast which none of them understood, while she waved two fingers atthem with a curious gesture. 

"I do believe she is afraid Mabel will cast the evil eye on her doll, "said Katy at last, with a sudden understanding as to what thispantomime meant. 

"Why, you silly thing!" cried the outraged Amy; "do you suppose for onemoment that my child could hurt your dirty old dolly? You ought to beglad to have her noticed at all by anybody that's clean. "

The sound of the foreign tongue completed the discomfiture of thelittle Italian. With a shriek she fled, and all the other childrenafter her; pausing at a distance to look back at the alarming creatureswho didn't speak the familiar language. Katy, wishing to leave apleasant impression, made Mabel kiss her waxen fingers toward them. This sent the children off into another fit of laughter and chatter, and they followed our friends for quite a distance as they proceeded ontheir way to the hotel. 

All that night, over a sea as smooth as glass, the "Marco Polo" slippedalong the coasts past which the ships of Ulysses sailed in those oldlegendary days which wear so charmed a light to our modern eyes. Katyroused at three in the morning, and looking from her cabin window had aglimpse of an island, which her map showed her must be Elba, where thatwar-eagle Napoleon was chained for a while. Then she fell asleep again, and when she roused in full daylight the steamer was off the coast ofOstia and nearing the mouth of the Tiber. Dreamy mountain-shapes rosebeyond the far-away Campagna, and every curve and indentation of thecoast bore a name which recalled some interesting thing. 

About eleven a dim-drawn bubble appeared on the horizon, which thecaptain assured them was the dome of St. Peter's, nearly thirty milesdistant. This was one of the "moments" which Clover had been fond ofspeculating about; and Katy, contrasting the real with the imaginarymoment, could not help smiling. Neither she nor Clover had ever supposedthat her first glimpse of the great dome was to be so little impressive. 

On and on they went till the air-hung bubble disappeared; and Amy, grownvery tired of scenery with which she had no associations, and grown-upraptures which she did not comprehend, squeezed herself into the end ofthe long wooden settee on which Katy sat, and began to beg for anotherstory concerning Violet and Emma. 

"Just a little tiny chapter, you know, Miss Katy, about what they did onNew Year's Day or something. It's so dull to keep sailing and sailingall day and have nothing to do, and it's ever so long since you told meanything about them, really and truly it is!"

Now, Violet and Emma, if the truth is to be told, had grown to be thebane of Katy's existence. She had rung the changes on their uneventfuladventures, and racked her brains to invent more and more details, tillher imagination felt like a dry sponge from which every possible drop ofmoisture had been squeezed. Amy was insatiable. Her interest in the talenever flagged; and when her exhausted friend explained that she reallycould not think of another word to say on the subject, she would turnthe tables by asking, "Then, Miss Katy, mayn't I tell _you_ a chapter?"whereupon she would proceed somewhat in this fashion:--

"It was the day before Christmas--no, we won't have it the day beforeChristmas; it shall be three days before Thanksgiving. Violet and Emmagot up in the morning, and--well, they didn't do anything in particularthat day. They just had their breakfasts and dinners, and played andstudied a little, and went to bed early, you know, and the next morning--well, there didn't much happen that day, either; they just had theirbreakfasts and dinners, and played. "

Listening to Amy's stories was so much worse than telling them to her, that Katy in self-defence was driven to recommence her narrations, butshe had grown to hate Violet and Emma with a deadly hatred. So when Amymade this appeal on the steamer's deck, a sudden resolution tookpossession of her, and she decided to put an end to these dreadfulchildren once for all. 

"Yes, Amy, " she said, "I will tell you one more story about Violet andEmma; but this is positively the last. "

So Amy cuddled close to her friend, and listened with rapt attention asKaty told how on a certain day just before the New Year, Violet and Emmastarted by themselves in a little sleigh drawn by a pony, to carry to apoor woman who lived in a lonely house high up on a mountain slope abasket containing a turkey, a mould of cranberry jelly, a bunch ofcelery, and a mince-pie. 

"They were so pleased at having all these nice things to take to poorwidow Simpson and in thinking how glad she would be to see them, "proceeded the naughty Katy, "that they never noticed how black the skywas getting to be, or how the wind howled through the bare boughs of thetrees. They had to go slowly, for the road was up hill all the way, andit was hard work for the poor pony. But he was a stout little fellow, and tugged away up the slippery track, and Violet and Emma talked andlaughed, and never thought what was going to happen. Just half-way upthe mountain there was a rocky cliff which overhung the road, and onthis cliff grew an enormous hemlock tree. The branches were loaded withsnow, which made them much heavier than usual. Just as the sleigh passedslowly underneath the cliff, a violent blast of wind blew up from theravine, struck the hemlock and tore it out of the ground, roots and all. It fell directly across the sleigh, and Violet and Emma and the pony andthe basket with the turkey and the other things in it were all crushedas flat as pancakes!"

"Well, " said Amy, as Katy stopped, "go on! what happened then?"

"Nothing happened then, " replied Katy, in a tone of awful solemnity;"nothing could happen! Violet and Emma were dead, the pony was dead, thethings in the basket were broken all to little bits, and a greatsnowstorm began and covered them up, and no one knew where they were orwhat had become of them till the snow melted in the spring. "

With a loud shriek Amy jumped up from the bench. 

"No! no! no!" she cried; "they aren't dead! I won't let them be dead!"Then she burst into tears, ran down the stairs, locked herself into hermother's stateroom, and did not appear again for several hours. 

Katy laughed heartily at first over this outburst, but presently shebegan to repent and to think that she had treated her pet unkindly. Shewent down and knocked at the stateroom door; but Amy would not answer. She called her softly through the key-hole, and coaxed and pleaded, butit was all in vain. Amy remained invisible till late in the afternoon;and when she finally crept up again to the deck, her eyes were red withcrying, and her little face as pale and miserable as if she had beenattending the funeral of her dearest friend. 

Katy's heart smote her. 

"Come here, my darling, " she said, holding out her hand; "come and sitin my lap and forgive me. Violet and Emma shall not be dead. They shallgo on living, since you care so much for them, and I will tell storiesabout them to the end of the chapter. "

"No, " said Amy, shaking her head mournfully; "you can't. They're dead, and they won't come to life again ever. It's all over, and I'm soso-o-rry. "

All Katy's apologies and efforts to resuscitate the story were useless. Violet and Emma were dead to Amy's imagination, and she could not makeherself believe in them any more. 

She was too woe-begone to care for the fables of Circe and her swinewhich Katy told as they rounded the magnificent Cape Circello, and theisles where the sirens used to sing appealed to her in vain. The sunset, the stars came out; and under the beams of their countless lampsand the beckonings of a slender new moon, the "Marco Polo" sailed intothe Bay of Naples, past Vesuvius, whose dusky curl of smoke could beseen outlined against the luminous sky, and brought her passengers totheir landing-place. 

They woke next morning to a summer atmosphere full of yellow sunshineand true July warmth. Flower-vendors stood on every corner, and pursuedeach newcomer with their fragrant wares. Katy could not stop exclaimingover the cheapness of the flowers, which were thrust in at the carriagewindows as they drove slowly up and down the streets. They were tiedinto flat nosegays, whose centre was a white camellia, encircled withconcentric rows of pink tea rosebuds, ring after ring, till the wholewas the size of an ordinary milk-pan; all to be had for the sum of tencents! But after they had bought two or three of these enormousbouquets, and had discovered that not a single rose boasted an inch ofstem, and that all were pierced with long wires through their veryhearts, she ceased to care for them. 

"I would rather have one Souvenir or General Jacqueminot, with a longstem and plenty of leaves, than a dozen of these stiff platters ofbouquets, " Katy told Mrs. Ashe. But when they drove beyond the citygates, and the coachman came to anchor beneath walls overhung with thesame roses, and she found that she might stand on the seat and pull downas many branches of the lovely flowers as she desired, and gatherwallflowers for herself out of the clefts in the masonry, she wasentirely satisfied. 

"This is the Italy of my dreams, " she said. 

With all its beauty there was an underlying sense of danger aboutNaples, which interfered with their enjoyment of it. Evil smells camein at the windows, or confronted them as they went about the city. There seemed something deadly in the air. Whispered reports met theirears of cases of fever, which the landlords of the hotels were doingtheir best to hush up. An American gentleman was said to be lying veryill at one house. A lady had died the week before at another. Mrs. Ashegrew nervous. 

"We will just take a rapid look at a few of the principal things, " shetold Katy, "and then get away as fast as we can. Amy is so on my mindthat I have no peace of my life. I keep feeling her pulse and imaginingthat she does not look right; and though I know it is all my fancy, I amimpatient to be off. You won't mind, will you, Katy?"

After that everything they did was done in a hurry. Katy felt as if shewere being driven about by a cyclone, as they rushed from one sight toanother, filling up all the chinks between with shopping, which wasirresistible where everything was so pretty and so wonderfully cheap. She herself purchased a tortoise-shell fan and chain for Rose Red, andhad her monogram carved upon it; a coral locket for Elsie; some studsfor Dorry; and for her father a small, beautiful vase of bronze, copiedfrom one of the Pompeian antiques. 

"How charming it is to have money to spend in such a place as this!" shesaid to herself with a sigh of satisfaction as she surveyed thesedelightful buyings. "I only wish I could get ten times as many thingsand take them to ten times as many people. Papa was so wise about it. Ican't think how it is that he always knows beforehand exactly how peopleare going to feel, and what they will want!"

Mrs. Ashe also bought a great many things for herself and Amy, and totake home as presents; and it was all very pleasant and satisfactoryexcept for that subtle sense of danger from which they could not escapeand which made them glad to go. "See Naples and die, " says the oldadage; and the saying has proved sadly true in the case of many anAmerican traveller. 

Beside the talk of fever there was also a good deal of gossip aboutbrigands going about, as is generally the case in Naples and itsvicinity. Something was said to have happened to a party on one of theheights above Sorrento; and though nobody knew exactly what thesomething was, or was willing to vouch for the story, Mrs. Ashe andKaty felt a good deal of trepidation as they entered the carriage whichwas to take them to the neighborhood where the mysterious "something"had occurred. 

The drive between Castellamare and Sorrento is in reality as safe asthat between Boston and Brookline; but as our party did not know thisfact till afterward, it did them no good. It is also one of the mostbeautiful drives in the world, following the windings of the exquisitecoast mile after mile, in long links of perfectly made road, carved onthe face of sharp cliffs, with groves of oranges and lemons and oliveorchards above, and the Bay of Naples beneath, stretching away like asolid sheet of lapis-lazuli, and gemmed with islands of the mostpicturesque form. 

It is a pity that so much beauty should have been wasted on Mrs. Asheand Katy, but they were too frightened to half enjoy it. Their carriagewas driven by a shaggy young savage, who looked quite wild enough to bea bandit himself. He cracked his whip loudly as they rolled along, andevery now and then gave a long shrill whistle. Mrs. Ashe was sure thatthese were signals to his band, who were lurking somewhere on theolive-hung hillsides. She thought she detected him once or twice makingsigns to certain questionable-looking characters as they passed; and shefancied that the people they met gazed at them with an air ofcommiseration, as upon victims who were being carried to execution. Herfears affected Katy; so, though they talked and laughed, and made jokesto amuse Amy, who must not be scared or led to suppose that anything wasamiss, and to the outward view seemed a very merry party, they wereprivately quaking in their shoes all the way, and enjoying a deal ofhighly superfluous misery. And after all they reached Sorrento inperfect safety; and the driver, who looked so dangerous, turned out tobe a respectable young man enough, with a wife and family to support, who considered a plateful of macaroni and a glass of sour red wine asthe height of luxury, and was grateful for a small gratuity of thirtycents or so, which would enable him to purchase these dainties. Mrs. Ashe had a very bad headache next day, to pay for her fright; but sheand Katy agreed that they had been very foolish, and resolved to pay nomore attention to unaccredited rumors or allow them to spoil theirenjoyment, which was a sensible resolution to make. 

Their hotel was perched directly over the sea. From the balcony of theirsitting-room they looked down a sheer cliff some sixty feet high, intothe water; their bedrooms opened on a garden of roses, with an orangegrove beyond. Not far from them was the great gorge which cuts thelittle town of Sorrento almost in two, and whose seaward end makes theharbor of the place. Katy was never tired of peering down into thisstrange and beautiful cleft, whose sides, two hundred feet in depth, arehung with vines and trailing growths of all sorts, and seem alla-tremble with the fairy fronds of maiden-hair ferns growing out ofevery chink and crevice. She and Amy took walks along the coast towardMassa, to look off at the lovely island shapes in the bay, and admirethe great clumps of cactus and Spanish bayonet which grew by theroadside; and they always came back loaded with orange-flowers, whichcould be picked as freely as apple-blossoms from New England orchards inthe spring. The oranges themselves at that time of the year were verysour, but they answered as well for a romantic date, "From an orangegrove, " as if they had been the sweetest in the world. 

They made two different excursions to Pompeii, which is within easydistance of Sorrento. They scrambled on donkeys over the hills, and hadglimpses of the far-away Calabrian shore, of the natural arch, and thetemples of Pæstum shining in the sun many miles distant. On Katy'sbirthday, which fell toward the end of January, Mrs. Ashe let her haveher choice of a treat; and she elected to go to the Island of Capri, which none of them had seen. It turned out a perfect day, with sea andwind exactly right for the sail, and to allow of getting into the famous"Blue Grotto, " which can only be entered under particular conditions oftide and weather. And they climbed the great cliff-rise at the island'send, and saw the ruins of the villa built by the wicked emperorTiberius, and the awful place known as his "Leap, " down which, it issaid, he made his victims throw themselves; and they lunched at a hotelwhich bore his name, and just at sunset pushed off again for the rowhome over the charmed sea. This return voyage was almost the pleasantestthing of all the day. The water was smooth, the moon at its full. It waslarger and more brilliant than American moons are, and seemed to possessan actual warmth and color. The boatmen timed their oar-strokes to thecadence of Neapolitan _barcaroles_ and folk-songs, full of rhythmicmovement, which seemed caught from the pulsing tides. And when at lastthe bow grated on the sands of the Sorrento landing-place, Katy drew along, regretful breath, and declared that this was her bestbirthday-gift of all, better than Amy's flowers, or the prettytortoise-shell locket that Mrs. Ashe had given her, better even than theletter from home, which, timed by happy accident, had arrived by themorning's post to make a bright opening for the day. 

All pleasant things must come to an ending. 

"Katy, " said Mrs. Ashe, one afternoon in early February, "I heard someladies talking just now in the _salon_, and they said that Rome isfilling up very fast. The Carnival begins in less than two weeks, andeverybody wants to be there then. If we don't make haste, we shall notbe able to get any rooms. "

"Oh dear!" said Katy, "it is very trying not to be able to be in twoplaces at once. I want to see Rome dreadfully, and yet I cannot bear toleave Sorrento. We have been very happy here, haven't we?"

So they took up their wandering staves again, and departed for Rome, like the Apostle, "not knowing what should befall them there. "

CHAPTER IX. 

A ROMAN HOLIDAY. 

"Oh dear!" said Mrs. Ashe, as she folded her letters and laid themaside, "I wish those Pages would go away from Nice, or else that thefrigates were not there. "

"Why! what's the matter?" asked Katy, looking up from the many-leavedjournal from Clover over which she was poring. 

"Nothing is the matter except that those everlasting people haven't goneto Spain yet, as they said they would, and Ned seems to keep on seeingthem, " replied Mrs. Ashe, petulantly. 

"But, dear Polly, what difference does it make? And they never didpromise you to go on any particular time, did they?"

"N-o, they didn't; but I wish they would, all the same. Not that Ned issuch a goose as really to care anything for that foolish Lilly!" Thenshe gave a little laugh at her own inconsistency, and added, "But Ioughtn't to abuse her when she is your cousin. "

"Don't mention it, " said Katy, cheerfully. "But, really, I don't see whypoor Lilly need worry you so, Polly dear. "

The room in which this conversation took place was on the very topmostfloor of the Hotel del Hondo in Rome. It was large and many-windowed;and though there was a little bed in one corner half hidden behind acalico screen, with a bureau and washing-stand, and a sort of stoutmahogany hat-tree on which Katy's dresses and jackets were hanging, theremaining space, with a sofa and easy-chairs grouped round a fire, and around table furnished with books and a lamp, was ample enough to make agood substitute for the private sitting-room which Mrs. Ashe had notbeen able to procure on account of the near approach of the Carnival andthe consequent crowding of strangers to Rome. In fact, she was assuredthat under the circumstances she was lucky in finding rooms as good asthese; and she made the most of the assurance as a consolation for thesomewhat unsatisfactory food and service of the hotel, and the four longflights of stairs which must be passed every time they needed to reachthe dining-room or the street door. 

The party had been in Rome only four days, but already they had seen ahost of interesting things. They had stood in the strange sunken spacewith its marble floor and broken columns, which is all that is left ofthe great Roman Forum. They had visited the Coliseum, at that periodstill overhung with ivy garlands and trailing greeneries, and not, asnow, scraped clean and bare and "tidied" out of much of itspicturesqueness. They had seen the Baths of Caracalla and the Temple ofJanus and St. Peter's and the Vatican marbles, and had driven out on theCampagna and to the Pamphili-Doria Villa to gather purple and redanemones, and to the English cemetery to see the grave of Keats. Theyhad also peeped into certain shops, and attended a reception at theAmerican Minister's, --in short, like most unwarned travellers, they haddone about twice as much as prudence and experience would havepermitted, had those worthies been consulted. 

All the romance of Katy's nature responded to the fascination of theancient city, --the capital of the world, as it may truly be called. Theshortest drive or walk brought them face to face with innumerable andunexpected delights. Now it was a wonderful fountain, with plunginghorses and colossal nymphs and Tritons, holding cups and horns fromwhich showers of white foam rose high in air to fall like rushing raininto an immense marble basin. Now it was an arched doorway withtraceries as fine as lace, --sole-remaining fragment of a heathen temple, flung and stranded as it were by the waves of time on the squalid shoreof the present. Now it was a shrine at the meeting of three streets, where a dim lamp burned beneath the effigy of the Madonna, with always afresh rose beside it in a vase, and at its foot a peasant woman kneelingin red bodice and blue petticoat, with a lace-trimmed towel folded overher hair. Or again it would be a sunlit terrace lifted high on ahillside, and crowded with carriages full of beautifully dressed people, while below all Rome seemed spread out like a panorama, dim, mighty, majestic, and bounded by the blue wavy line of the Campagna and theAlban hills. Or perhaps it might be a wonderful double flight of stepswith massive balustrades and pillars with urns, on which sat a crowd offigures in strange costumes and attitudes, who all looked as though theyhad stepped out of pictures, but who were in reality models waiting forartists to come by and engage them. No matter what it was, --a bit ofoddly tinted masonry with a tuft of brown and orange wallflowers hangingupon it, or a vegetable stall where endive and chiccory and curlylettuces were arranged in wreaths with tiny orange gourds and scarletpeppers for points of color, --it was all Rome, and, by virtue of thatword, different from any other place, --more suggestive, moreinteresting, ten times more mysterious than any other could possibly be, so Katy thought. 

This fact consoled her for everything and anything, --for the fleas, thedirt, for the queer things they had to eat and the still queerer odorsthey were forced to smell! Nothing seemed of any particular consequenceexcept the deep sense of enjoyment, and the newly discovered world ofthought and sensation of which she had become suddenly conscious. 

The only drawback to her happiness, as the days went on, was thatlittle Amy did not seem quite well or like herself. She had taken acold on the journey from Naples, and though it did not seem serious, that, or something, made her look pale and thin. Her mother said shewas growing fast, but the explanation did not quite account for thewistful look in the child's eyes and the tired feeling of which shecontinually complained. Mrs. Ashe, with vague uneasiness, began to talkof cutting short their Roman stay and getting Amy off to the morebracing air of Florence. But meanwhile there was the Carnival close athand, which they must by no means lose; and the feeling that theiropportunity might be a brief one made her and Katy all the more anxiousto make the very most of their time. So they filled the days full withsights to see and things to do, and came and went; sometimes taking Amywith them, but more often leaving her at the hotel under the care of akind German chambermaid, who spoke pretty good English and to whom Amyhad taken a fancy. 

"The marble things are so cold, and the old broken things make me sosorry, " she explained; "and I hate beggars because they are dirty, andthe stairs make my back ache; and I'd a great deal rather stay withMaria and go up on the roof, if you don't mind, mamma. "

This roof, which Amy had chosen as a playplace, covered the whole of thegreat hotel, and had been turned into a sort of upper-air garden by thesimple process of gravelling it all over, placing trellises of ivy hereand there, and setting tubs of oranges and oleanders and boxes of gaygeraniums and stock-gillyflowers on the balustrades. A tame fawn wastethered there. Amy adopted him as a playmate; and what with his companyand that of the flowers, the times when her mother and Katy were absentfrom her passed not unhappily. 

Katy always repaired to the roof as soon as they came in from their longmornings and afternoons of sight-seeing. Years afterward, she wouldremember with contrition how pathetically glad Amy always was to seeher. She would put her little head on Katy's breast and hold her tightfor many minutes without saying a word. When she did speak it was alwaysabout the house and the garden that she talked. She never asked anyquestions as to where Katy had been, or what she had done; it seemed totire her to think about it. 

"I should be very lonely sometimes if it were not for my dear littlefawn, " she told Katy once. "He is so sweet that I don't miss you andmamma very much while I have him to play with. I call him Florio, --don'tyou think that is a pretty name? I like to stay with him a great dealbetter than to go about with you to those nasty-smelling old churches, with fleas hopping all over them!"

So Amy was left in peace with her fawn, and the others made haste to seeall they could before the time came to go to Florence. 

[Illustration: Amy was left in peace with her fawn. ]

Katy realized one of the "moments" for which she had come to Europe whenshe stood for the first time on the balcony overhanging the Corso, whichMrs. Ashe had hired in company with some acquaintances made at thehotel, and looked down at the ebb and surge of the just-begun Carnival. The narrow street seemed humming with people of all sorts andconditions. Some were masked; some were not. There were ladies andgentlemen in fashionable clothes, peasants in the gayest costumes, surprised-looking tourists in tall hats and linen dusters, harlequins, clowns, devils, nuns, dominoes of every color, --red, white, blue, black;while above, the balconies bloomed like a rose-garden with pretty facesframed in lace veils or picturesque hats. Flowers were everywhere, wreathed along the house-fronts, tied to the horses' ears, in ladies'hands and gentlemen's button-holes, while venders went up and down thestreet bearing great trays of violets and carnations and camellias forsale. The air was full of cries and laughter, and the shrill calls ofmerchants advertising their wares, --candy, fruit, birds, lanterns, and_confetti_, the latter being merely lumps of lime, large or small, witha pea or a bean embedded in each lump to give it weight. Boxes full ofthis unpleasant confection were suspended in front of each balcony, withtin scoops to use in ladling it out and flinging it about. Everybodywore or carried a wire mask as protection against this white, incessantshower; and before long the air became full of a fine dust which hungabove the Corso like a mist, and filled the eyes and noses and clothesof all present with irritating particles. 

Pasquino's Car was passing underneath just as Katy and Mrs. Ashearrived, --a gorgeous affair, hung with silken draperies, and bearing assymbol an enormous egg, in which the Carnival was supposed to be in actof incubation. A huge wagon followed in its wake, on which was a housesome sixteen feet square, whose sole occupant was a gentleman attendedby five servants, who kept him supplied with _confetti_, which heshowered liberally on the heads of the crowd. Then came a car in theshape of a steamboat, with a smoke-pipe and sails, over which flew theUnion Jack, and which was manned with a party wearing the dress ofBritish tars. The next wagon bore a company of jolly maskers equippedwith many-colored bladders, which they banged and rattled as they wentalong. Following this was a troupe of beautiful circus horses, cream-colored with scarlet trappings, or sorrel with blue, ridden byladies in pale green velvet laced with silver, or blue velvet and gold. Another car bore a bird-cage which was an exact imitation of St. Peter's, within which perched a lonely old parrot. This device evidentlyhad a political signification, for it was alternately hissed andapplauded as it went along. The whole scene was like a brilliant, rapidly shifting dream; and Katy, as she stood with lips apart and eyeswide open with wonderment and pleasure, forgot whether she was in thebody or not, --forgot everything except what was passing before her gaze. 

She was roused by a stinging shower of lime-dust. An Englishman in thenext balcony had take courteous advantage of her preoccupation, and hadflung a scoopful of _confetti_ in her undefended face! It is generallyAnglo-Saxons of the less refined class, English or Americans, who dothese things at Carnival times. The national love of a rough joke comesto the surface, encouraged by the license of the moment, and all thegrace and prettiness of the festival vanish. Katy laughed, and dustedherself as well as she could, and took refuge behind her mask; while animble American boy of the party changed places with her, andthenceforward made that particular Englishman his special target, plyingsuch a lively and adroit shovel as to make Katy's assailant rue the hourwhen he evoked this national reprisal. His powdered head and ratherclumsy efforts to retaliate excited shouts of laughter from theadjoining balconies. The young American, fresh from tennis and collegeathletics, darted about and dodged with an agility impossible to hisheavily built foe; and each effective shot and parry on his side wasgreeted with little cries of applause and the clapping of hands on thepart of those who were watching the contest. 

Exactly opposite them was a balcony hung with white silk, in which sat alady who seemed to be of some distinction; for every now and then anofficer in brilliant uniform, or some official covered with orders andstars, would be shown in by her servants, bow before her with the utmostdeference, and after a little conversation retire, kissing her glovedhand as he went. The lady was a beautiful person, with lustrous blackeyes and dark hair, over which a lace mantilla was fastened with diamondstars. She wore pale blue with white flowers, and altogether, as Katyafterward wrote to Clover, reminded her exactly of one of thosebeautiful princesses whom they used to play about in their childhood andquarrel over, because every one of them wanted to be the Princess andnobody else. 

"I wonder who she is, " said Mrs. Ashe in a low tone. "She might bealmost anybody from her looks. She keeps glancing across to us, Katy. Doyou know, I think she has taken a fancy to you. "

Perhaps the lady had; for just then she turned her head and said a wordto one of her footmen, who immediately placed something in her hand. Itwas a little shining bonbonniere, and rising she threw it straight atKaty. Alas! it struck the edge of the balcony and fell into the streetbelow, where it was picked up by a ragged little peasant girl in a redjacket, who raised a pair of astonished eyes to the heavens, as if surethat the gift must have fallen straight from thence. Katy bent forwardto watch its fate, and went through a little pantomime of regret anddespair for the benefit of the opposite lady, who only laughed, andtaking another from her servant flung with better aim, so that it fellexactly at Katy's feet. This was a gilded box in the shape of amandolin, with sugar-plums tucked cunningly away inside. Katy kissedboth her hands in acknowledgment for the pretty toy, and tossed back abunch of roses which she happened to be wearing in her dress. After thatit seemed the chief amusement of the fair unknown to throw bonbons atKaty. Some went straight and some did not; but before the afternoonended, Katy had quite a lapful of confections and trifles, --roses, sugared almonds, a satin casket, a silvered box in the shape of ahorseshoe, a tiny cage with orange blossoms for birds on the perches, aminute gondola with a _marron glacée_ by way of passenger, and, prettiest of all, a little ivory harp strung with enamelled violetsinstead of wires. For all these favors she had nothing better to offer, in return, than a few long-tailed bonbons with gay streamers of ribbon. These the lady opposite caught very cleverly, rarely missing one, andkissing her hand in thanks each time. 

"Isn't she exquisite?" demanded Katy, her eyes shining withexcitement. "Did you ever see any one so lovely in your life, Pollydear? I never did. There, now! she is buying those birds to set themfree, I do believe. "

It was indeed so. A vender of larks had, by the aid of a long staff, thrust a cage full of wretched little prisoners up into the balcony; and"Katy's lady, " as Mrs. Ashe called her, was paying for the whole. Asthey watched she opened the cage door, and with the sweetest look on herface encouraged the birds to fly away. The poor little creatures coweredand hesitated, not knowing at first what use to make of their newliberty; but at last one, the boldest of the company, hopped to the doorand with a glad, exultant chirp flew straight upward. Then the others, taking courage from his example, followed, and all were lost to view inthe twinkling of an eye. 

"Oh, you angel!" cried Katy, leaning over the edge of the balcony andkissing both hands impulsively, "I never saw any one so sweet as you arein my life. Polly dear, I think carnivals are the most perfectlybewitching things in the world. How glad I am that this lasts a week, and that we can come every day. Won't Amy be delighted with thesebonbons! I do hope my lady will be here tomorrow. "

How little she dreamed that she was never to enter that balcony again!How little can any of us see what lies before us till it comes so nearthat we cannot help seeing it, or shut our eyes, or turn away!

The next morning, almost as soon as it was light, Mrs. Ashe tapped atKaty's door. She was in her dressing-gown, and her eyes looked large andfrightened. 

"Amy is ill, " she cried. "She has been hot and feverish all night, andshe says that her head aches dreadfully. What shall I do, Katy? Weought to have a doctor at once, and I don't know the name even of anydoctor here. "

Katy sat up in bed, and for one bewildered moment did not speak. Herbrain felt in a whirl of confusion; but presently it cleared, and shesaw what to do. 

"I will write a note to Mrs. Sands, " she said. Mrs. Sands was the wifeof the American Minister, and one of the few acquaintances they hadmade since they came to Rome. "You remember how nice she was the otherday, and how we liked her; and she has lived here so long that ofcourse she must know all about the doctors. Don't you think that is thebest thing to do!"

"The very best, " said Mrs. Ashe, looking relieved. "I wonder I did notthink of it myself, but I am so confused that I can't think. Write thenote at once, please, dear Katy. I will ring your bell for you, and thenI must hurry back to Amy. "

Katy made haste with the note. The answer came promptly in half an hour, and by ten o'clock the physician recommended appeared. Dr. Hilary was adark little Italian to all appearance; but his mother had been aScotch-woman, and he spoke English very well, --a great comfort to poorMrs. Ashe, who knew not a word of Italian and not a great deal ofFrench. He felt Amy's pulse for a long time, and tested her temperature;but he gave no positive opinion, only left a prescription, and said thathe would call later in the day and should then be able to judge moreclearly what the attack was likely to prove. 

Katy augured ill from this reserve. There was no talk of going to theCarnival that afternoon; no one had any heart for it. Instead, Katyspent the time in trying to recollect all she had ever heard about thecare of sick people, --what was to be done first and what next, --and insearching the shops for a feather pillow, which luxury Amy wasimperiously demanding. The pillows of Roman hotels are, as a generalthing, stuffed with wool, and very hard. 

"I won't have this horrid pillow any longer, " poor Amy was screaming. "It's got bricks in it. It hurts the back of my neck. Take it away, mamma, and give me a nice soft American pillow. I won't have this aminute longer. Don't you hear me, mamma! Take it away!"

So, while Mrs. Ashe pacified Amy to the best of her ability, Katyhurried out in quest of the desired pillow. It proved almost anunattainable luxury; but at last, after a long search, she secured anair-cushion, a down cushion about twelve inches square, and one oldfeather pillow which had come from some auction, and had apparently lainfor years in the corner of the shop. When this was encased in a freshcover of Canton flannel, it did very well, and stilled Amy's complaintsa little; but all night she grew worse, and when Dr. Hilary came nextday, he was forced to utter plainly the dreaded words "Roman fever. " Amywas in for an attack, --a light one he hoped it might be, --but they hadbetter know the truth and make ready for it. 

Mrs. Ashe was utterly overwhelmed by this verdict, and for the firstbewildered moments did not know which way to turn. Katy, happily, kepta steadier head. She had the advantage of a little preparation ofthought, and had decided beforehand what it would be necessary to do"in case. " Oh, that fateful "in case"! The doctor and she consultedtogether, and the result was that Katy sought out the padrona of theestablishment, and without hinting at the nature of Amy's attack, secured some rooms just vacated, which were at the end of a corridor, and a little removed from the rooms of other people. There was a largeroom with corner windows, a smaller one opening from it, and another, still smaller, close by, which would serve as a storeroom or might dofor the use of a nurse. 

These rooms, without much consultation with Mrs. Ashe, --who seemedstunned and sat with her eyes fixed on Amy, just answering, "Certainly, dear, anything you say, " when applied to, --Katy had arranged accordingto her own ideas of comfort and hygienic necessity, as learned from MissNightingale's excellent little book on nursing. From the larger room shehad the carpet, curtains, and nearly all the furniture taken away, thefloor scrubbed with hot soapsuds, and the bed pulled out from the wallto allow of a free circulation of air all round it. The smaller one shemade as comfortable as possible for the use of Mrs. Ashe, choosing forit the softest sofa and the best mattresses that were obtainable; forshe knew that her friend's strength was likely to be severely tried ifAmy's illness proved serious. When all was ready, Amy, well wrapped inher coverings, was carried down the entry and laid in the fresh bed withthe soft pillows about her; and Katy, as she went to and fro, conveyingclothes and books and filling drawers, felt that they were perhapsmaking arrangements for a long, hard trial of faith and spirits. 

By the next day the necessity of a nurse became apparent, and in theafternoon Katy started out in a little hired carriage in search of one. She had a list of names, and went first to the English nurses; butfinding them all engaged, she ordered the coachman to drive to a conventwhere there was hope that a nursing sister might be procured. 

Their route lay across the Corso. So utterly had the Carnival with allits gay follies vanished from her mind, that she was for a momentastonished at finding herself entangled in a motley crowd, so densethat the coachman was obliged to rein in his horses and stand still forsome time. 

There were the same masks and dominos, the same picturesque peasantcostumes which had struck her as so gay and pretty only three daysbefore. The same jests and merry laughter filled the air, but somehowit all seemed out of tune. The sense of cold, lonely fear that hadtaken possession of her killed all capacity for merriment; theapprehension and solicitude of which her heart was full made the gaychattering and squeaking of the crowd sound harsh and unfeeling. Thebright colors affronted her dejection; she did not want to see them. She lay back in the carriage, trying to be patient under the detention, and half shut her eyes. 

A shower of lime dust aroused her. It came from a party of burly figuresin white cotton dominos, whose carriage had been stayed by the crowdclose to her own. She signified by gestures that she had no _confetti_and no protection, that she "was not playing, " in fact; but her appealmade no difference. The maskers kept on shovelling lime all over herhair and person and the carriage, and never tired of the sport till anopportune break in the procession enabled their vehicle to move on. 

Katy was shaking their largesse from her dress and parasol as well asshe could, when an odd gibbering sound close to her ear, and thelaughter of the crowd attracted her attention to the back of thecarriage. A masker attired as a scarlet devil had climbed into the hood, and was now perched close behind her. She shook her head at him; but heonly shook his in return, and chattered and grimaced, and bent over tillhis fiery mask almost grazed her shoulder. There was no hope but in goodhumor, as she speedily realized; and recollecting that in hershopping-bag one or two of the Carnival bonbons still remained, she tookthese out and offered them in the hope of propitiating him. The fiendbit one to insure that it was made of sugar and not lime, while thecrowd laughed more than ever; then, seeming satisfied, he made Katy alittle speech in rapid Italian, of which she did not comprehend a word, kissed her hand, jumped down from the carriage and disappeared in thecrowd to her great relief. 

Presently after that the driver spied an opening, of which he tookadvantage. They were across the Corso now, the roar and rush of theCarnival dying into silence as they drove rapidly on; and Katy, as shefinished wiping away the last of the lime dust, wiped some tears fromher cheeks as well. 

"How hateful it all was!" she said to herself. Then she remembered asentence read somewhere, "How heavily roll the wheels of other people'sjoys when your heart is sorrowful!" and she realized that it is true. 

The convent was propitious, and promised to send a sister next morning, with the proviso that every second day she was to come back to sleep andrest. Katy was too thankful for any aid to make objections, and drovehome with visions of saintly nuns with pure pale faces full of peace andresignation, such as she had read of in books, floating before her eyes. 

Sister Ambrogia, when she appeared next day, did not exactly realizethese imaginations. She was a plump little person, with rosy cheeks, apair of demure black eyes, and a very obstinate mouth and chin. It soonappeared that natural inclination combined with the rules of her conventmade her theory of a nurse's duties a very limited one. 

If Mrs. Ashe wished her to go down to the office with an order, she wastold: "We sisters care for the sick; we are not allowed to converse withporters and hotel people. "

If Katy suggested that on the way home she should leave a prescriptionat the chemist's, it was: "We sisters are for nursing only; we do notvisit shops. " And when she was asked if she could make beef tea, shereplied calmly but decisively, "We sisters are not cooks. "

In fact, all that Sister Ambrogia seemed able or willing to do, beyondthe bathing of Amy's face and brushing her hair, which she accomplishedhandily, was to sit by the bedside telling her rosary, or plying alittle ebony shuttle in the manufacture of a long strip of tatting. Eventhis amount of usefulness was interfered with by the fact that Amy, whoby this time was in a semi-delirious condition, had taken an aversion toher at the first glance, and was not willing to be left with her for asingle moment. 

"I won't stay here alone with Sister Embroidery, " she would cry, if hermother and Katy went into the next room for a moment's rest or a privateconsultation; "I hate Sister Embroidery! Come back, mamma, come backthis moment! She's making faces at me, and chattering just like an oldparrot, and I don't understand a word she says. Take Sister Embroideryaway, mamma, I tell you! Don't you hear me? Come back, I say!"

The little voice would be raised to a shrill scream; and Mrs. Ashe andKaty, hurrying back, would find Amy sitting up on her pillow with wet, scarlet-flushed cheeks and eyes bright with fever, ready to throwherself out of bed; while, calm as Mabel, whose curly head lay on thepillow beside her little mistress, Sister Ambrogia, unaware of theintricacies of the English language, was placidly telling her beads andmuttering prayers to herself. Some of these prayers, I do not doubt, related to Amy's recovery if not to her conversion, and were well meant;but they were rather irritating under the circumstances!

CHAPTER X. 

CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN. 

When the first shock is over and the inevitable realized and accepted, those who tend a long illness are apt to fall into a routine of lifewhich helps to make the days seem short. The apparatus of nursing is gottogether. Every day the same things need to be done at the same hoursand in the same way. Each little appliance is kept at hand; and sad andtired as the watchers may be, the very monotony and regularity of theirproceedings give a certain stay for their thoughts to rest upon. 

But there was little of this monotony to help Mrs. Ashe and Katy throughwith Amy's illness. Small chance was there for regularity or exactsystem; for something unexpected was always turning up, and needfulthings were often lacking. The most ordinary comforts of the sick-room, or what are considered so in America, were hard to come by, and much ofKaty's time was spent in devising substitutes to take their places. 

Was ice needed? A pailful of dirty snow would be brought in, full ofstraws, sticks, and other refuse, which had apparently been scraped fromthe surface of the street after a frosty night. Not a particle of itcould be put into milk or water; all that could be done was to make thepail serve the purpose of a refrigerator, and set bowls and tumblers init to chill. 

Was a feeding-cup wanted? It came of a cumbrous and antiquated pattern, which the infant Hercules may have enjoyed, but which the modern Amyabominated and rejected. Such a thing as a glass tube could not be foundin all Rome. Bed-rests were unknown. Katy searched in vain for anIndia-rubber hot-water bag. 

But the greatest trial of all was the beef tea. It was Amy's sole food, and almost her only medicine; for Dr. Hilary believed in leaving Naturepretty much to herself in cases of fever. The kitchen of the hotel sentup, under that name, a mixture of grease and hot water, which could notbe given to Amy at all. In vain Katy remonstrated and explained theprocess. In vain did she go to the kitchen herself to translate acarefully written recipe to the cook, and to slip a shining five-francpiece in his hand, which it was hoped would quicken his energies andsoften his heart. In vain did she order private supplies of the best ofbeef from a separate market. The cooks stole the beef and ignored therecipe; and day after day the same bottle-full of greasy liquid cameupstairs, which Amy would not touch, and which would have done her nogood had she swallowed it all. At last, driven to desperation, Katyprocured a couple of stout bottles, and every morning slowly andcarefully cut up two pounds of meat into small pieces, sealed the bottlewith her own seal ring, and sent it down to be boiled for a specifiedtime. This answered better, for the thieving cook dared not tamper withher seal; but it was a long and toilsome process, and consumed more timethan she well knew how to spare, --for there were continual errands to bedone which no one could attend to but herself, and the interminableflights of stairs taxed her strength painfully, and seemed to growlonger and harder every day. 

At last a good Samaritan turned up in the shape of an American lady witha house of her own, who, hearing of their plight from Mrs. Sands, undertook to send each day a supply of strong, perfectly made beef tea, from her own kitchen, for Amy's use. It was an inexpressible relief, andthe lightening of this one particular care made all the rest seem easierof endurance. 

Another great relief came, when, after some delay, Dr. Hilary succeededin getting an English nurse to take the places of the unsatisfactorySister Ambrogia and her substitute, Sister Agatha, whom Amy in herhalf-comprehending condition persisted in calling "Sister NutmegGrater. " Mrs. Swift was a tall, wiry, angular person, who seemed made ofequal parts of iron and whalebone. She was never tired; she could liftanybody, do anything; and for sleep she seemed to have a sort ofantipathy, preferring to sit in an easy-chair and drop off into littledozes, whenever it was convenient, to going regularly to bed for anight's rest. 

Amy took to her from the first, and the new nurse managed herbeautifully. No one else could soothe her half so well during thedelirious period, when the little shrill voice seemed never to be still, and went on all day and all night in alternate raving or screaming or, what was saddest of all to hear, low pitiful moans. There was noshutting in these sounds. People moved out of the rooms below and oneither side, because they could get no sleep; and till the arrival ofNurse Swift, there was no rest for poor Mrs. Ashe, who could not keepaway from her darling for a moment while that mournful wailing soundedin her ears. 

Somehow the long, dry Englishwoman seemed to have a mesmeric effect onAmy, who was never quite so violent after she arrived. Katy was morethankful for this than can well be told; for her great underlyingdread--a dread she dared not whisper plainly even to herself--was that"Polly dear" might break down before Amy was better, and then what_should_ they do?

She took every care that was possible of her friend. She made her eat;she made her lie down. She forced daily doses of quinine and port-winedown her throat, and saved her every possible step. But no one, howeveraffectionate and willing, could do much to lift the crushing burden ofcare, which was changing Mrs. Ashe's rosy fairness to wan pallor andlaying such dark shadows under the pretty gray eyes. She had taken smallthought of looks since Amy's illness. All the little touches which hadmade her toilette becoming, all the crimps and fluffs, had disappeared;yet somehow never had she seemed to Katy half so lovely as now in theplain black gown which she wore all day long, with her hair tucked intoa knot behind her ears. Her real beauty of feature and outline seemedonly enhanced by the rigid plainness of her attire, and the charm oftrue expression grew in her face. Never had Katy admired and loved herfriend so well as during those days of fatigue and wearing suspense, orrealized so strongly the worth of her sweetness of temper, herunselfishness and power of devoting herself to other people. 

"Polly bears it wonderfully, " she wrote her father; "she was all brokendown for the first day or two, but now her courage and patience aresurprising. When I think how precious Amy is to her and how lonely herlife would be if she were to die, I can hardly keep the tears out of myeyes. But Polly does not cry. She is quiet and brave and almost cheerfulall the time, keeping herself busy with what needs to be done; she nevercomplains, and she looks--oh, so pretty! I think I never knew how muchshe had in her before. "

All this time no word had come from Lieutenant Worthington. His sisterhad written him as soon as Amy was taken ill, and had twice telegraphedsince, but no answer had been received, and this strange silence addedto the sense of lonely isolation and distance from home and help whichthose who encounter illness in a foreign land have to bear. 

So first one week and then another wore themselves away somehow. Thefever did not break on the fourteenth day, as had been hoped, and mustrun for another period, the doctor said; but its force was lessened, andhe considered that a favorable sign. Amy was quieter now and did notrave so constantly, but she was very weak. All her pretty hair had beenshorn away, which made her little face look tiny and sharp. Mabel'sgolden wig was sacrificed at the same time. Amy had insisted upon it, and they dared not cross her. 

"She has got a fever, too, and it's a great deal badder than mine is, "she protested. "Her cheeks are as hot as fire. She ought to have ice onher head, and how can she when her bang is so thick? Cut it all off, every bit, and then I will let you cut mine. "

"You had better give ze child her way, " said Dr. Hilary. "She's in nostate to be fretted with triffles [trifles, the doctor meant], and in zeend it will be well; for ze fever infection might harbor in zat doll'shead as well as elsewhere, and I should have to disinfect it, whichwould be bad for ze skin of her. "

"She isn't a doll, " cried Amy, overhearing him; "she's my child, and yousha'n't call her names. " She hugged Mabel tight in her arms, and glaredat Dr. Hilary defiantly. 

So Katy with pitiful fingers slashed away at Mabel's blond wig till herhead was as bare as a billiard-ball; and Amy, quite content, patted herchild while her own locks were being cut, and murmured, "Perhaps yourhair will all come out in little round curls, darling, as Johnnie Carr'sdid;" then she fell into one of the quietest sleeps she had yet had. 

It was the day after this that Katy, coming in from a round of errands, found Mrs. Ashe standing erect and pale, with a frightened look in hereyes, and her back against Amy's door, as if defending it from somebody. Confronting her was Madame Frulini, the _padrona_ of the hotel. Madame'scheeks were red, and her eyes bright and fierce; she was evidently in arage about something, and was pouring out a torrent of excited Italian, with now and then a French or English word slipped in by way ofpunctuation, and all so rapidly that only a trained ear could havefollowed or grasped her meaning. 

"What is the matter?" asked Katy, in amazement. 

"Oh, Katy, I am so glad you have come, " cried poor Mrs. Ashe. "I canhardly understand a word that this horrible woman says, but I think shewants to turn us out of the hotel, and that we shall take Amy to someother place. It would be the death of her, --I know it would. I never, never will go, unless the doctor says it is safe. I oughtn't to, --Icouldn't; she can't make me, can she, Katy?"

"Madame, " said Katy, --and there was a flash in her eyes before which thelandlady rather shrank, --"what is all this? Why do you come to troublemadame while her child is so ill?"

Then came another torrent of explanation which didn't explain; but Katygathered enough of the meaning to make out that Mrs. Ashe was quitecorrect in her guess, and that Madame Frulini was requesting, nay, insisting, that they should remove Amy from the hotel at once. Therewere plenty of apartments to be had now that the Carnival was over, shesaid, --her own cousin had rooms close by, --it could easily be arranged, and people were going away from the Del Mondo every day because therewas fever in the house. Such a thing could not be, it should notbe, --the landlady's voice rose to a shriek, "the child must go!"

"You are a cruel woman, " said Katy, indignantly, when she had graspedthe meaning of the outburst. "It is wicked, it is cowardly, to come thusand attack a poor lady under your roof who has so much already to bear. It is her only child who is lying in there, --her only one, do youunderstand, madame?--and she is a widow. What you ask might kill thechild. I shall not permit you or any of your people to enter that doortill the doctor comes, and then I shall tell him how you have behaved, and we shall see what he will say. " As she spoke she turned the key ofAmy's door, took it out and put it in her pocket, then faced the_padrona_ steadily, looking her straight in the eyes. 

"Mademoiselle, " stormed the landlady, "I give you my word, four peoplehave left this house already because of the noises made by little miss. More will go. I shall lose my winter's profit, --all of it, --all; it willbe said there is fever at the Del Mondo, --no one will hereafter come tome. There are lodgings plenty, comfortable, --oh, so comfortable! I willnot have my season ruined by a sickness; no, I will not!"

Madame Frulini's voice was again rising to a scream. 

"Be silent!" said Katy, sternly; "you will frighten the child. I amsorry that you should lose any customers, madame, but the fever is hereand we are here, and here we must stay till it is safe to go. The childshall not be moved till the doctor gives permission. Money is not theonly thing in the world! Mrs. Ashe will pay anything that is fair tomake up your losses to you, but you must leave this room now, and notreturn till Dr. Hilary is here. "

Where Katy found French for all these long coherent speeches, she couldnever afterward imagine. She tried to explain it by saying thatexcitement inspired her for the moment, but that as soon as the momentwas over the inspiration died away and left her as speechless andconfused as ever. Clover said it made her think of the miracle ofBalaam; and Katy merrily rejoined that it might be so, and that nodonkey in any age of the world could possibly have been more gratefulthan was she for the sudden gift of speech. 

"But it is not the money, --it is my prestige, " declared the landlady. 

"Thank Heaven! here is the doctor now, " cried Mrs. Ashe. 

The doctor had in fact been standing in the doorway for several momentsbefore they noticed him, and had overheard part of the colloquy withMadame Frulini. With him was some one else, at the sight of whom Mrs. Ashe gave a great sob of relief. It was her brother, at last. 

When Italian meets Italian, then comes the tug of expletive. It did notseem to take one second for Dr. Hilary to whirl the _padrona_ out intothe entry, where they could be heard going at each other like twofurious cats. Hiss, roll, sputter, recrimination, objurgation! In fiveminutes Madame Frulini was, metaphorically speaking, on her knees, andthe doctor standing over her with drawn sword, making her take backevery word she had said and every threat she had uttered. 

"Prestige of thy miserable hotel!" he thundered; "where will that bewhen I go and tell the English and Americans--all of whom I know, everyone!--how thou hast served a countrywoman of theirs in thy house? Dostthou think thy prestige will help thee much when Dr. Hilary has fixed ablack mark on thy door! I tell thee no; not a stranger shalt thou havenext year to eat so much as a plate of macaroni under thy base roof! Iwill advertise thy behavior in all the foreign papers, --in Figaro, inGalignani, in the Swiss Times, and the English one which is read by allthe nobility, and the Heraldo of New York, which all Americans peruse--"

"Oh, doctor--pardon me--I regret what I said--I am afflicted--"

"I will post thee in the railroad stations, " continued the doctor, implacably; "I will bid my patients to write letters to all theirfriends, warning them against thy flea-ridden Del Mondo; I will apprisethe steamboat companies at Genoa and Naples. Thou shalt see what comesof it, --truly, thou shalt see. "

Having thus reduced Madame Frulini to powder, the doctor nowcondescended to take breath and listen to her appeals for mercy; andpresently he brought her in with her mouth full of protestations andapologies, and assurances that the ladies had mistaken her meaning, shehad only spoken for the good of all; nothing was further from herintention than that they should be disturbed or offended in any way, andshe and all her household were at the service of "the little sick angelof God. " After which the doctor dismissed her with an air ofcontemptuous tolerance, and laid his hand on the door of Amy's room. Behold, it was locked!

"Oh, I forgot, " cried Katy, laughing; and she pulled the key out ofher pocket. 

"You are a hee-roine, mademoiselle, " said Dr. Hilary. "I watched you asyou faced that tigress, and your eyes were like a swordsman's as heregards his enemy's rapier. "

"Oh, she was so brave, and such a help!" said Mrs. Ashe, kissing herimpulsively. "You can't think how she has stood by me all through, Ned, or what a comfort she has been. "

"Yes, I can, " said Ned Worthington, with a warm, grateful look at Katy. "I can believe anything good of Miss Carr. "

"But where have _you_ been all this time?" said Katy, who felt thisflood of compliment to be embarrassing; "we have so wondered at nothearing from you. "

"I have been off on a ten-days' leave to Corsica for moufflon-shooting, "replied Mr. Worthington. "I only got Polly's telegrams and letters daybefore yesterday, and I came away as soon as I could get my leaveextended. It was a most unlucky absence. I shall always regret it. "

"Oh, it is all right now that you have come, " his sister said, leaningher head on his arm with a look of relief and rest which was good tosee. "Everything will go better now, I am sure. "

"Katy Carr has behaved like a perfect angel, " she told her brother whenthey were alone. 

"She is a trump of a girl. I came in time for part of that scene withthe landlady, and upon my word she was glorious! I didn't suppose shecould look so handsome. "

"Have the Pages left Nice yet?" asked his sister, rather irrelevantly. 

"No, --at least they were there on Thursday, but I think that they wereto start to-day. "

Mr. Worthington answered carelessly, but his face darkened as he spoke. There had been a little scene in Nice which he could not forget. He wassitting in the English garden with Lilly and her mother when hissister's telegrams were brought to him; and he had read them aloud, partly as an explanation for the immediate departure which they madenecessary and which broke up an excursion just arranged with the ladiesfor the afternoon. It is not pleasant to have plans interfered with; andas neither Mrs. Page nor her daughter cared personally for little Amy, it is not strange that disappointment at the interruption of theirpleasure should have been the first impulse with them. Still, this didnot excuse Lilly's unstudied exclamation of "Oh, bother!" and though shespeedily repented it as an indiscretion, and was properly sympathetic, and "hoped the poor little thing would soon be better, " Amy's unclecould not forget the jarring impression. It completed a process ofdisenchantment which had long been going on; and as hearts are sometimescaught at the rebound, Mrs. Ashe was not so far astray when she builtcertain little dim sisterly hopes on his evident admiration for Katy'scourage and this sudden awakening to a sense of her good looks. 

But no space was left for sentiment or match-making while still Amy'sfate hung in the balance, and all three of them found plenty to doduring the next fortnight. The fever did not turn on the twenty-firstday, and another weary week of suspense set in, each day bringing adecrease of the dangerous symptoms, but each day as well marking alessening in the childish strength which had been so long and severelytested. Amy was quite conscious now, and lay quietly, sleeping a greatdeal and speaking seldom. There was not much to do but to wait and hope;but the flame of hope burned low at times, as the little life flickeredin its socket, and seemed likely to go out like a wind-blown torch. 

Now and then Lieutenant Worthington would persuade his sister to gowith him for a few minutes' drive or walk in the fresh air, from whichshe had so long been debarred, and once or twice he prevailed on Katyto do the same; but neither of them could bear to be away long fromAmy's bedside. 

Intimacy grows fast when people are thus united by a common anxiety, sharing the same hopes and fears day after day, speaking and thinking ofthe same thing. The gay young officer at Nice, who had counted so littlein Katy's world, seemed to have disappeared, and the gentle, considerate, tender-hearted fellow who now filled his place was quite adifferent person in her eyes. Katy began to count on Ned Worthington asa friend who could be trusted for help and sympathy and comprehension, and appealed to and relied upon in all emergencies. She was quite atease with him now, and asked him to do this and that, to come and helpher, or to absent himself, as freely as if he had been Dorry or Phil. 

He, on his part, found this easy intimacy charming. In the reaction ofhis temporary glamour for the pretty Lilly, Katy's very difference fromher was an added attraction. This difference consisted, as much asanything else, in the fact that she was so truly in earnest in what shesaid and did. Had Lilly been in Katy's place, she would probably havebeen helpful to Mrs. Ashe and kind to Amy so far as in her lay; but thethought of self would have tinctured all that she did and said, and theneed of keeping to what was tasteful and becoming would have influencedher in every emergency, and never have been absent from her mind. 

Katy, on the contrary, absorbed in the needs of the moment, gave littleheed to how she looked or what any one was thinking about her. Her habitof neatness made her take time for the one thorough daily dressing, --thebrushing of hair and freshening of clothes, which were customary withher; but, this tax paid to personal comfort, she gave little furtherheed to appearances. She wore an old gray gown, day in and day out, which Lilly would not have put on for half an hour without a largebribe, so unbecoming was it; but somehow Lieutenant Worthington grew tolike the gray gown as a part of Katy herself. And if by chance hebrought a rose in to cheer the dim stillness of the sick-room, and shetucked it into her buttonhole, immediately it was as though she weredecked for conquest. Pretty dresses are very pretty on prettypeople, --they certainly play an important part in this queer littleworld of ours; but depend upon it, dear girls, no woman ever hasestablished so distinct and clear a claim on the regard of her lover aswhen he has ceased to notice or analyze what she wears, and just acceptsit unquestioningly, whatever it is, as a bit of the dear human lifewhich has grown or is growing to be the best and most delightful thingin the world to him. 

The gray gown played its part during the long anxious night when theyall sat watching breathlessly to see which way the tide would turn withdear little Amy. The doctor came at midnight, and went away to comeagain at dawn. Mrs. Swift sat grim and watchful beside the pillow of hercharge, rising now and then to feel pulse and skin, or to put a spoonfulof something between Amy's lips. The doors and windows stood open toadmit the air. In the outer room all was hushed. A dim Roman lamp, fedwith olive oil, burned in one corner behind a screen. Mrs. Ashe lay onthe sofa with her eyes closed, bearing the strain of suspense inabsolute silence. Her brother sat beside her, holding in his one of thehot hands whose nervous twitches alone told of the surgings of hope andfear within. Katy was resting in a big chair near by, her wistful eyesfixed on Amy's little figure seen in the dim distance, her ears alertfor every sound from the sick-room. 

So they watched and waited. Now and then Ned Worthington or Katy wouldrise softly, steal on tiptoe to the bedside, and come back to whisper toMrs. Ashe that Amy had stirred or that she seemed to be asleep. It wasone of the nights which do not come often in a lifetime, and whichpeople never forget. The darkness seems full of meaning; the hush, ofsound. God is beyond, holding the sunrise in his right hand, holding thesun of our earthly hopes as well, --will it dawn in sorrow or in joy? Wedare not ask, we can only wait. 

A faint stir of wind and a little broadening of the light roused Katyfrom a trance of half-understood thoughts. She crept once more intoAmy's room. Mrs. Swift laid a warning finger on her lips; Amy wassleeping, she said with a gesture. Katy whispered the news to the stillfigure on the sofa, then she went noiselessly out of the room. The greathotel was fast asleep; not a sound stirred the profound silence of thedark halls. A longing for fresh air led her to the roof. 

There was the dawn just tingeing the east. The sky, even thus early, wore the deep mysterious blue of Italy. A fresh _tramontana_ wasblowing, and made Katy glad to draw her shawl about her. 

Far away in the distance rose the Alban Hills above the dim Campagna, with the more lofty Sabines beyond, and Soracte, clear cut against thesky like a wave frozen in the moment of breaking. Below lay the ancientcity, with its strange mingling of the old and the new, of past thingsembedded in the present; or is it the present thinly veiling the richand mighty past, --who shall say?

Faint rumblings of wheels and here and there a curl of smoke showed thatRome was waking up. The light insensibly grew upon the darkness. A pinkflush lit up the horizon. Florio stirred in his lair, stretched hisdappled limbs, and as the first sun-ray glinted on the roof, raisedhimself, crossed the gravelled tiles with soundless feet, and ran hissoft nose into Katy's hand. She fondled him for Amy's sake as she stoodbent over the flower-boxes, inhaling the scent of the mignonette andgilly-flowers, with her eyes fixed on the distance; but her heart was athome with the sleepers there, and a rush of strong desire stirred her. Would this dreary time come to an end presently, and should they be setat liberty to go their ways with no heavy sorrow to press them down, tobe care-free and happy again in their own land?

A footstep startled her. Ned Worthington was coming over the roof ontiptoe as if fearful of disturbing somebody. His face looked resoluteand excited. 

"I wanted to tell you, " he said in a hushed voice, "that the doctor ishere, and he says Amy has no fever, and with care may be considered outof danger. "

"Thank God!" cried Katy, bursting into tears. The long fatigue, thefears kept in check so resolutely, the sleepless night just passed, hadtheir revenge now, and she cried and cried as if she could never stop, but with all the time such joy and gratitude in her heart! She wasconscious that Ned had his arm round her and was holding both her handstight; but they were so one in the emotion of the moment that it did notseem strange. 

"How sweet the sun looks!" she said presently, releasing herself, with ahappy smile flashing through her tears; "it hasn't seemed really brightfor ever so long. How silly I was to cry! Where is dear Polly? I must godown to her at once. Oh, what does she say?"

CHAPTER XI. 

NEXT. 

Lieut. Worthington's leave had nearly expired. He must rejoin hisship; but he waited till the last possible moment in order to help hissister through the move to Albano, where it had been decided that Amyshould go for a few days of hill air before undertaking the longerjourney to Florence. 

It was a perfect morning in late March when the pale little invalid wascarried in her uncle's strong arms, and placed in the carriage which wasto take them to the old town on the mountain slopes which they had seenshining from far away for so many weeks past. Spring had come in herfairest shape to Italy. The Campagna had lost its brown and tawny huesand taken on a tinge of fresher color. The olive orchards were buddingthickly. Almond boughs extended their dazzling shapes across the bluesky. Arums and acanthus and ivy filled every hollow, roses nodded fromover every gate, while a carpet of violets and cyclamen and primrosesstretched over the fields and freighted every wandering wind withfragrance. 

When once the Campagna with its long line of aqueducts, arches, andhoary tombs was left behind, and the carriage slowly began to mount thegradual rises of the hill, Amy revived. With every breath of the fresherair her eyes seemed to brighten and her voice to grow stronger. She heldMabel up to look at the view; and the sound of her laugh, faint andfeeble as it was, was like music to her mother's ears. 

Amy wore a droll little silk-lined cap on her head, over which a downygrowth of pale-brown fuzz was gradually thickening. Already it showed atendency to form into tiny rings, which to Amy, who had always hankeredfor curls, was an extreme satisfaction. Strange to say, the same thingexactly had happened to Mabel; her hair had grown out into soft littleround curls also! Uncle Ned and Katy had ransacked Rome for thisbaby-wig, which filled and realized all Amy's hopes for her child. Onthe same excursion they had bought the materials for the pretty springsuit which Mabel wore, for it had been deemed necessary to sacrificemost of her wardrobe as a concession to possible fever-germs. Amyadmired the pearl-colored dress and hat, the fringed jacket and littlelace-trimmed parasol so much, that she was quite consoled for the lossof the blue velvet costume and ermine muff which had been the pride ofher heart ever since they left Paris, and whose destruction they hadscarcely dared to confess to her. 

So up, up, up, they climbed till the gateway of the old town was passed, and the carriage stopped before a quaint building once the residence ofthe Bishop of Albano, but now known as the Hôtel de la Poste. Here theyalighted, and were shown up a wide and lofty staircase to their rooms, which were on the sunny side of the house, and looked across a walledgarden, where roses and lemon trees grew beside old fountains guarded bysculptured lions and heathen divinities with broken noses and a scantsupply of fingers and toes, to the Campagna, purple with distance andstretching miles and miles away to where Rome sat on her seven hills, lifting high the Dome of St. Peter's into the illumined air. 

Nurse Swift said that Amy must go to bed at once, and have a long rest. But Amy nearly wept at the proposal, and declared that she was not a bittired and couldn't sleep if she went to bed ever so much. The change ofair had done her good already, and she looked more like herself than formany weeks past. They compromised their dispute on a sofa, where Amy, well wrapped up, was laid, and where, in spite of her protestations, shepresently fell asleep, leaving the others free to examine and arrangetheir new quarters. 

Such enormous rooms as they were! It was quite a journey to go from oneside of them to another. The floors were of stone, with squares ofcarpet laid down over them, which looked absurdly small for the greatspaces they were supposed to cover. The beds and tables were of theusual size, but they seemed almost like doll furniture because thechambers were so big. A quaint old paper, with an enormous pattern ofbanyan trees and pagodas, covered the walls, and every now and thenbetrayed by an oblong of regular cracks the existence of a hidden door, papered to look exactly like the rest of the wall. 

These mysterious doors made Katy nervous, and she never rested till shehad opened every one of them and explored the places they led to. Onegave access to a queer little bathroom. Another led, through a narrowdark passage, to a sort of balcony or loggia overhanging the garden. Athird ended in a dusty closet with an artful chink in it from which youcould peep into what had been the Bishop's drawing-room but which wasnow turned into the dining-room of the hotel. It seemed made forpurposes of espial; and Katy had visions of a long line of reverendprelates with their ears glued to the chink, overhearing what was beingsaid about them in the apartment beyond. 

The most surprising of all she did not discover till she was going tobed on the second night after their arrival, when she thought she knewall about the mysterious doors and what they led to. A littleunexplained draught of wind made her candle flicker, and betrayed theexistence of still another door so cunningly hid in the wall patternthat she had failed to notice it. She had quite a creepy feeling as shedrew her dressing-gown about her, took a light, and entered the narrowpassage into which it opened. It was not a long passage, and endedpresently in a tiny oratory. There was a little marble altar, with akneeling-step and candlesticks and a great crucifix above. Ends of waxcandles still remained in the candlesticks, and bunches of dusty paperflowers filled the vases which stood on either side of them. A fadedsilk cushion lay on the step. Doubtless the Bishop had often kneltthere. Katy felt as if she were the first person to enter the placesince he went away. Her common-sense told her that in a hotel bedroomconstantly occupied by strangers for years past, some one _must_ havediscovered the door and found the little oratory before her; butcommon-sense is sometimes less satisfactory than romance. Katy liked tothink that she was the first, and to "make believe" that no one elseknew about it; so she did so, and invented legends about the place whichAmy considered better than any fairy story. 

Before he left them Lieutenant Worthington had a talk with his sisterin the garden. She rather forced this talk upon him, for variousthings were lying at her heart about which she longed for explanation;but he yielded so easily to her wiles that it was evident he was notaverse to the idea. 

"Come, Polly, don't beat about the bush any longer, " he said at last, amused and a little irritated at her half-hints and little feminine_finesses_. "I know what you want to ask; and as there's no usemaking a secret of it, I will take my turn in asking. Have I any chance, do you think?"

"Any chance?--about Katy, do you mean? Oh, Ned, you make me so happy. "

"Yes; about her, of course. "

"I don't see why you should say 'of course, '" remarked his sister, withthe perversity of her sex, "when it's only five or six weeks ago that Iwas lying awake at night for fear you were being gobbled up by thatLilly Page. "

"There was a little risk of it, " replied her brother, seriously. "She'sawfully pretty and she dances beautifully, and the other fellows wereall wild about her, and--well, you know yourself how such things go. Ican't see now what it was that I fancied so much about her, I don'tsuppose I could have told exactly at the time; but I can tell withoutthe smallest trouble what it is in--the other. "

"In Katy? I should think so, " cried Mrs. Ashe, emphatically; "the twoare no more to be compared than--than--well, bread and syllabub! You canlive on one, and you can't live on the other. "

"Come, now, Miss Page isn't so bad as that. She is a nice girl enough, and a pretty girl too, --prettier than Katy; I'm not so far gone that Ican't see that. But we won't talk about her, she's not in the presentquestion at all; very likely she'd have had nothing to say to me in anycase. I was only one out of a dozen, and she never gave me reason tosuppose that she cared more for me than the rest. Let us talk about thisfriend of yours; have I any chance at all, do you think, Polly?"

"Ned, you are the dearest boy! I would rather have Katy for a sisterthan any one else I know. She's so nice all through, --so true and sweetand satisfactory. "

"She is all that and more; she's a woman to tie to for life, to beperfectly sure of always. She would make a splendid wife for any man. I'm not half good enough for her; but the question is, --and you haven'tanswered it yet, Polly, --what's my chance?"

"I don't know, " said his sister, slowly. 

"Then I must ask herself, and I shall do so to-day. "

"I don't know, " repeated Mrs. Ashe. "'She is a woman, therefore to bewon:' and I don't think there is any one ahead of you; that is the besthope I have to offer, Ned. Katy never talks of such things; and thoughshe's so frank, I can't guess whether or not she ever thinks about them. She likes you, however, I am sure of that. But, Ned, it will not be wiseto say anything to her yet. "

"Not say anything? Why not?"

"No. Recollect that it is only a little while since she looked upon youas the admirer of another girl, and a girl she doesn't like very much, though they are cousins. You must give her time to get over thatimpression. Wait awhile; that's my advice, Ned. "

"I'll wait any time if only she will say yes in the end. But it's hardto go away without a word of hope, and it's more like a man to speakout, it seems to me. "

"It's too soon, " persisted his sister. "You don't want her to thinkyou a fickle fellow, falling in love with a fresh girl every time yougo into port, and falling out again when the ship sails. Sailors havea bad reputation for that sort of thing. No woman cares to win a manlike that. "

"Great Scott! I should think not! Do you mean to say that is the way myconduct appears to her, Polly ?"

"No, I don't mean just that; but wait, dear Ned, I am sure it isbetter. "

Fortified by this sage counsel, Lieutenant Worthington went away nextmorning, without saying anything to Katy in words, though perhaps eyesand tones may have been less discreet. He made them promise that someone should send a letter every day about Amy; and as Mrs. Ashefrequently devolved the writing of these bulletins upon Katy, and thereplies came in the shape of long letters, she found herself conductinga pretty regular correspondence without quite intending it. NedWorthington wrote particularly nice letters. He had the knack, moreoften found in women than men, of giving a picture with a few graphictouches, and indicating what was droll or what was characteristic witha single happy phrase. His letters grew to be one of Katy's pleasures;and sometimes, as Mrs. Ashe watched the color deepen in her cheekswhile she read, her heart would bound hopefully within her. But she wasa wise woman in her way, and she wanted Katy for a sister very much; soshe never said a word or looked a look to startle or surprise her, butleft the thing to work itself out, which is the best course always inlove affairs. 

Little Amy's improvement at Albano was something remarkable. Mrs. Swiftwatched over her like a lynx. Her vigilance never relaxed. Amy was madeto eat and sleep and walk and rest with the regularity of a machine; andthis exact system, combined with the good air, worked like a charm. Thelittle one gained hour by hour. They could absolutely see her growingfat, her mother declared. Fevers, when they do not kill, operatesometimes as spring bonfires do in gardens, burning up all the refuseand leaving the soil free for the growth of fairer things; and Amypromised in time to be only the better and stronger for her hardexperience. 

She had gained so much before the time came to start for Florence, thatthey scarcely dreaded the journey; but it proved worse than theirexpectations. They had not been able to secure a carriage to themselves, and were obliged to share their compartment with two English ladies, andthree Roman Catholic priests, one old, the others young. The olderpriest seemed to be a person of some consequence; for quite a number ofpeople came to see him off, and knelt for his blessing devoutly as thetrain moved away. The younger ones Katy guessed to be seminary studentsunder his charge. Her chief amusement through the long dusty journey wasin watching the terrible time that one of these young men was havingwith his own hat. It was a large three-cornered black affair, with sharpangles and excessively stiff; and a perpetual struggle seemed to begoing on between it and its owner, who was evidently unhappy when it wason his head and still more unhappy when it was anywhere else. If heperched it on his knees it was sure to slide away from him and fall witha thump on the floor, whereupon he would pick it up, blushing furiouslyas he did so. Then he would lay it on the seat when the train stopped ata station, and jump out with an air of relief; but he invariably forgot, and sat down upon it when he returned, and sprang up with a look ofhorror at the loud crackle it made; after which he would tuck it intothe baggage-rack overhead, from which it would presently descend, generally into the lap of one of the staid English ladies, who wouldhand it back to him with an air of deep offence, remarking to hercompanion, --

"I never knew anything like it. Fancy! that makes four times that hathas fallen on me. The young man is a feedgit! He's the most feegittycreature I ever saw in my life. "

The young _seminariat_ did not understand a word she said; but thetone needed no interpreter, and set him to blushing more painfully thanever. Altogether, the hat was never off his mind for a moment. Katycould see that he was thinking about it, even when he was thumbing hisBreviary and making believe to read. 

At last the train, steaming down the valley of the Arno, revealed fairFlorence sitting among olive-clad hills, with Giotto's beautifulBell-tower, and the great, many-colored, soft-hued Cathedral, and thesquare tower of the old Palace, and the quaint bridges over the river, looking exactly as they do in the photographs; and Katy would have feltdelighted, in spite of dust and fatigue, had not Amy looked so worn outand exhausted. They were seriously troubled about her, and for themoment could think of nothing else. Happily the fatigue did no permanentharm, and a day or two of rest made her all right again. By goodfortune, a nice little apartment in the modern quarter of the city hadbeen vacated by its winter occupants the very day of their arrival, andMrs. Ashe secured it for a month, with all its conveniences andadvantages, including a maid named Maria, who had been servant to thejust departed tenants. 

Maria was a very tall woman, at least six feet two, and had a splendidcontralto voice, which she occasionally exercised while busy over herpots and pans. It was so remarkable to hear these grand arias andrecitatives proceeding from a kitchen some eight feet square, that Katywas at great pains to satisfy her curiosity about it. By aid of thedictionary and much persistent questioning, she made out that Maria inher youth had received a partial training for the opera; but in the endit was decided that she was too big and heavy for the stage, and thepoor "giantess, " as Amy named her, had been forced to abandon hercareer, and gradually had sunk to the position of a maid-of-all-work. Katy suspected that heaviness of mind as well as of body must have stoodin her way; for Maria, though a good-natured giantess, was by no meansquick of intelligence. 

"I do think that the manner in which people over here can make homes forthemselves at five minutes' notice is perfectly delightful, " cried Katy, at the end of their first day's housekeeping. "I wish we could do thesame in America. How cosy it looks here already!"

It was indeed cosy. Their new domain consisted of a parlor in a corner, furnished in bright yellow brocade, with windows to south and west; anice little dining-room; three bedrooms, with dimity-curtained beds; asquare entrance hall, lighted at night by a tall slender brass lampwhose double wicks were fed with olive oil; and the aforesaid tinykitchen, behind which was a sleeping cubby, quite too small to be a goodfit for the giantess. The rooms were full of conveniences, --easy-chairs, sofas, plenty of bureaus and dressing-tables, and corner fireplaces likeFranklin stoves, in which odd little fires burned on cool days, made ofpine cones, cakes of pressed sawdust exactly like Boston brown bread cutinto slices, and a few sticks of wood thriftily adjusted, for fuel isworth its weight in gold in Florence. Katy's was the smallest of thebedrooms, but she liked it best of all for the reason that its one bigwindow opened on an iron balcony over which grew a Banksia rose-vinewith a stem as thick as her wrist. It was covered just now with massesof tiny white blossoms, whose fragrance was inexpressibly delicious andmade every breath drawn in their neighborhood a delight. The sunstreamed in on all sides of the little apartment, which filled anarrowing angle at the union of three streets; and from one window andanother, glimpses could be caught of the distant heights about thecity, --San Miniato in one direction, Bellosguardo in another, and forthe third the long olive-hung ascent of Fiesole, crowned by its graycathedral towers. 

It was astonishing how easily everything fell into train about thelittle establishment. Every morning at six the English baker left twosmall sweet brown loaves and a dozen rolls at the door. Then followedthe dairyman with a supply of tiny leaf-shaped pats of freshly churnedbutter, a big flask of milk, and two small bottles of thick cream, witha twist of vine leaf in each by way of a cork. Next came a _contadino_with a flask of red Chianti wine, a film of oil floating on top to keepit sweet. People in Florence must drink wine, whether they like it ornot, because the lime-impregnated water is unsafe for use without someadmixture. 

Dinner came from a _trattoria_, in a tin box, with a pan of coals insideto keep it warm, which box was carried on a man's head. It was furnishedat a fixed price per day, --a soup, two dishes of meat, two vegetables, and a sweet dish; and the supply was so generous as always to leavesomething toward next day's luncheon. Salad, fruit, and fresh eggs Mariabought for them in the old market. From the confectioners came loaves of_pane santo_, a sort of light cake made with arrowroot instead of flour;and sometimes, by way of treat, a square of _pan forte da Siena_, compounded of honey, almonds, and chocolate, --a mixture as perniciousas it is delicious, and which might take a medal anywhere for the sureproduction of nightmares. 

Amy soon learned to know the shops from which these delicacies came. She had her favorites, too, among the strolling merchants who soldoranges and those little sweet native figs, dried in the sun withoutsugar, which are among the specialties of Florence. They, in theirturn, learned to know her and to watch for the appearance of her littlecapped head and Mabel's blond wig at the window, lingering about tillshe came, and advertising their wares with musical modulations, soappealing that Amy was always running to Katy, who acted ashousekeeper, to beg her to please buy this or that, "because it is myold man, and he wants me to so much. "

"But, chicken, we have plenty of figs for to-day. "

"No matter; get some more, please do. I'll eat them all; really, Iwill. "

And Amy was as good as her word. Her convalescent appetite was somethingprodigious. 

There was another branch of shopping in which they all took equaldelight. The beauty and the cheapness of the Florence flowers are acontinual surprise to a stranger. Every morning after breakfast an oldman came creaking up the two long flights of stairs which led to Mrs. Ashe's apartment, tapped at the door, and as soon as it opened, inserteda shabby elbow and a large flat basket full of flowers. Such flowers!Great masses of scarlet and cream-colored tulips, and white and goldnarcissus, knots of roses of all shades, carnations, heavy-headed trailsof wistaria, wild hyacinths, violets, deep crimson and orangeranunculus, _giglios_, or wild irises, --the Florence emblem, so deeplypurple as to be almost black, --anemones, spring-beauties, faintly tintedwood-blooms tied in large loose nosegays, ivy, fruitblossoms, --everything that can be thought of that is fair and sweet. These enticing wares the old man would tip out on the table. Mrs. Asheand Katy would select what they wanted, and then the process ofbargaining would begin, without which no sale is complete in Italy. Theold man would name an enormous price, five times as much as he hoped toget. Katy would offer a very small one, considerably less than sheexpected to give. The old man would dance with dismay, wring his hands, assure them that he should die of hunger and all his family with him ifhe took less than the price named; he would then come down half a francin his demand. So it would go on for five minutes, ten, sometimes for aquarter of an hour, the old man's price gradually descending, and Katy'sterms very slowly going up, a cent or two at a time. Next the giantesswould mingle with the fray. She would bounce out of her kitchen, beratethe flower-vender, snatch up his flowers, declare that they smelt badly, fling them down again, pouring out all the while a voluble tirade ofreproaches and revilings, and looking so enormous in her excitement thatKaty wondered that the old man dared to answer her at all. Finally, there would be a sudden lull. The old man would shrug his shoulders, andremarking that he and his wife and his aged grandmother must go withoutbread that day since it was the Signora's will, take the money offeredand depart, leaving such a mass of flowers behind him that Katy wouldbegin to think that they had paid an unfair price for them and to feel alittle rueful, till she observed that the old man was absolutely dancingdownstairs with rapture over the good bargain he had made, and thatMaria was black with indignation over the extravagance of her ladies!

"The Americani are a nation of spend-thrifts, " she would mutter toherself, as she quickened the charcoal in her droll little range byfanning it with a palm-leaf fan; "they squander money like water. Well, all the better for us Italians!" with a shrug of her shoulders. 

"But, Maria, it was only sixteen cents that we paid, and look at thoseflowers! There are at least half a bushel of them. "

"Sixteen cents for garbage like that! The Signorina would better let memake her bargains for her. _Già! Già!_ No Italian lady would have paidmore than eleven sous for such useless _roba_. It is evident that theSignorina's countrymen eat gold when at home, they think so little ofcasting it away!"

Altogether, what with the comfort and quiet of this little home, thenumberless delightful things that there were to do and to see, andViessieux's great library, from which they could draw books at willto make the doing and seeing more intelligible, the month atFlorence passed only too quickly, and was one of the times to whichthey afterward looked back with most pleasure. Amy grew steadilystronger, and the freedom from anxiety about her after their longstrain of apprehension was restful and healing beyond expression toboth mind and body. 

Their very last excursion of all, and one of the pleasantest, was to theold amphitheatre at Fiesole; and it was while they sat there in the softglow of the late afternoon, tying into bunches the violets which theyhad gathered from under walls whose foundations antedate Rome itself, that a cheery call sounded from above, and an unexpected surprisedescended upon them in the shape of Lieutenant Worthington, who havingsecured another fifteen days' furlough, had come to take his sister onto Venice. 

"I didn't write you that I had applied for leave, " he explained, "because there seemed so little chance of my getting off again so soon;but as luck had it, Carruthers, whose turn it was, sprained his ankleand was laid up, and the Commodore let us exchange. I made all thecapital I could out of Amy's fever; but upon my word, I felt like ahumbug when I came upon her and Mrs. Swift in the Cascine just now, as Iwas hunting for you. How she has picked up! I should never have knownher for the same child. "

"Yes, she seems perfectly well again, and as strong as before she hadthe fever, though that dear old Goody Swift is just as careful of her asever. She would not let us bring her here this afternoon, for fear weshould stay out till the dew fell. Ned, it is perfectly delightful thatyou were able to come. It makes going to Venice seem quite a differentthing, doesn't it, Katy?"

"I don't want it to seem quite different, because going to Venice wasalways one of my dreams, " replied Katy, with a little laugh. 

"I hope at least it doesn't make it seem less pleasant, " said Mr. Worthington, as his sister stopped to pick a violet. 

"No, indeed, I am glad, " said Katy; "we shall all be seeing it forthe first time, too, shall we not? I think you said you had neverbeen there. " She spoke simply and frankly, but she was conscious ofan odd shyness. 

"I simply couldn't stand it any longer, " Ned Worthington confided to hissister when they were alone. "My head is so full of her that I can'tattend to my work, and it came to me all of a sudden that this might bemy last chance. You'll be getting north before long, you know, toSwitzerland and so on, where I cannot follow you. So I made a cleanbreast of it to the Commodore; and the good old fellow, who has a softspot in his heart for a love-story, behaved like a brick, and made itall straight for me to come away. "

Mrs. Ashe did not join in these commendations of the Commodore; herattention was fixed on another part of her brother's discourse. 

"Then you won't be able to come to me again? I sha'n't see you againafter this!" she exclaimed. "Dear me! I never realized that before. Whatshall I do without you?"

"You will have Miss Carr. She is a host in herself, " suggested NedWorthington. His sister shook her head. 

"Katy is a jewel, " she remarked presently; "but somehow one wants a manto call upon. I shall feel lost without you, Ned. "

The month's housekeeping wound up that night with a "thick tea" in honorof Lieutenant Worthington's arrival, which taxed all the resources ofthe little establishment. Maria was sent out hastily to buy _pan forteda Siena_ and _vino d'Asti_, and fresh eggs for an omelette, andchickens' breasts smothered in cream from the restaurant, and artichokesfor a salad, and flowers to garnish all; and the guest ate and praisedand admired; and Amy and Mabel sat on his knee and explained everythingto him, and they were all very happy together. Their merriment was soinfectious that it extended to the poor giantess, who had been verypensive all day at the prospect of losing her good place, and who nowraised her voice in the grand aria from "Orfeo, " and made the kitchenring with the passionate demand "Che farò senza Eurydice?" The splendidnotes, full of fire and lamentation, rang out across the saucepans aseffectively as if they had been footlights; and Katy, rising softly, opened the kitchen door a little way that they might not lose a sound. 

The next day brought them to Venice. It was a "moment, " indeed, as Katyseated herself for the first time in a gondola, and looked from beneathits black hood at the palace walls on the Grand Canal, past which theywere gliding. Some were creamy white and black, some orange-tawny, others of a dull delicious ruddy color, half pink, half red; but all, inbuild and ornament, were unlike palaces elsewhere. High on the prowbefore her stood the gondolier, his form defined in dark outline againstthe sky, as he swayed and bent to his long oar, raising his head now andagain to give a wild musical cry, as warning to other approachinggondolas. It was all like a dream. Ned Worthington sat beside her, looking more at the changes in her expressive face than at the palaces. Venice was as new to him as to Katy; but she was a new feature in hislife also, and even more interesting than Venice. They seemed to floaton pleasures for the next ten days. Their arrival had been happily timedto coincide with a great popular festival which for nearly a week keptVenice in a state of continual brilliant gala. All the days were spenton the water, only landing now and then to look at some famous buildingor picture, or to eat ices in the Piazza with the lovely façade of St. Mark's before them. Dining or sleeping seemed a sheer waste of time! Theevenings were spent on the water too; for every night, immediately aftersunset, a beautiful drifting pageant started from the front of theDoge's Palace to make the tour of the Grand Canal, and our friendsalways took a part in it. In its centre went a barge hung withembroideries and filled with orange trees and musicians. This wassurrounded by a great convoy of skiffs and gondolas bearing coloredlanterns and pennons and gay awnings, and managed by gondoliers inpicturesque uniforms. All these floated and shifted and swept ontogether with a sort of rhythmic undulation as if keeping time to themusic, while across their path dazzling showers and arches of coloredfire poured from the palace fronts and the hotels. Every movement of thefairy flotilla was repeated in the illuminated water, every torch-tipand scarlet lantern and flake of green or rosy fire; above all thebright full moon looked down as if surprised. It was magically beautifulin effect. Katy felt as if her previous sober ideas about life andthings had melted away. For the moment the world was turned topsy-turvy. There was nothing hard or real or sordid left in it; it was just a fairytale, and she was in the middle of it as she had longed to be in herchildhood. She was the Princess, encircled by delights, as when she andClover and Elsie played in "Paradise, "--only, this was better; and, dearme! who was this Prince who seemed to belong to the story and to growmore important to it every day?

Fairy tales must come to ending. Katy's last chapter closed with asudden turn-over of the leaf when, toward the end of this happyfortnight, Mrs. Ashe came into her room with the face of one who hasunpleasant news to communicate. 

"Katy, " she began, "should you be _awfully_ disappointed, shouldyou consider me a perfect wretch, if I went home now instead of inthe autumn?"

Katy was too much astonished to reply. 

"I am grown such a coward, I am so knocked up and weakened by what Isuffered in Rome, that I find I cannot face the idea of going on toGermany and Switzerland alone, without Ned to take care of me. You are aperfect angel, dear, and I know that you would do all you could to makeit easy for me, but I am such a fool that I do not dare. I think mynerves must have given way, " she continued half tearfully; "but the veryidea of shifting for myself for five months longer makes me so miserablyhomesick that I cannot endure it. I dare say I shall repent afterward, and I tell myself now how silly it is; but it's no use, --I shall neverknow another easy moment till I have Amy safe again in America and underyour father's care. "

"I find, " she continued after another little pause, "that we can go downwith Ned to Genoa and take a steamer there which will carry us straightto New York without any stops. I hate to disappoint you dreadfully, Katy, but I have almost decided to do it. Shall you mind very much? Canyou ever forgive me?" She was fairly crying now. 

Katy had to swallow hard before she could answer, the sense ofdisappointment was so sharp; and with all her efforts there was almost asob in her voice as she said, --

"Why yes, indeed, dear Polly, there is nothing to forgive. You areperfectly right to go home if you feel so. " Then with another swallowshe added: "You have given me the loveliest six months' treat that everwas, and I should be a greedy girl indeed if I found fault because it iscut off a little sooner than we expected. "

"You are so dear and good not to be vexed, " said her friend, embracingher. "It makes me feel doubly sorry about disappointing you. Indeed Iwouldn't if I could help it, but I simply can't. I _must_ go home. Perhaps we'll come back some day when Amy is grown up, or safely marriedto somebody who will take good care of her!"

This distant prospect was but a poor consolation for the immediatedisappointment. The more Katy thought about it the sorrier did she feel. It was not only losing the chance--very likely the only one she wouldever have--of seeing Switzerland and Germany; it was all sorts of otherlittle things besides. They must go home in a strange ship with acaptain they did not know, instead of in the "Spartacus, " as they hadplanned; and they should land in New York, where no one would be waitingfor them, and not have the fun of sailing into Boston Bay and seeingRose on the wharf, where she had promised to be. Furthermore, they mustpass the hot summer in Burnet instead of in the cool Alpine valleys; andPolly's house was let till October. She and Amy would have to shift forthemselves elsewhere. Perhaps they would not be in Burnet at all. Ohdear, what a pity it was! what a dreadful pity!

Then, the first shock of surprise and discomfiture over, other ideasasserted themselves; and as she realized that in three weeks more, orfour at the longest, she was to see papa and Clover and all her dearpeople at home, she began to feel so very glad that she could hardlywait for the time to come. After all, there was nothing in Europe quiteso good as that. 

"No, I'm not sorry, " she told herself; "I am glad. Poor Polly! it's nowonder she feels nervous after all she has gone through. I hope I wasn'tcross to her! And it will be _very_ nice to have Lieutenant Worthingtonto take care of us as far as Genoa. "

The next three days were full of work. There was no more floating ingondolas, except in the way of business. All the shopping which they hadput off must be done, and the trunks packed for the voyage. Every onerecollected last errands and commissions; there was continual coming andgoing and confusion, and Amy, wild with excitement, popping up everyother moment in the midst of it all, to demand of everybody if they werenot glad that they were going back to America. 

Katy had never yet bought her gift from old Mrs. Redding. She hadwaited, thinking continually that she should see something more temptingstill in the next place they went to; but now, with the sense that therewere to be no more "next places, " she resolved to wait no longer, andwith a hundred francs in her pocket, set forth to choose something fromamong the many tempting things for sale in the Piazza. A bracelet of oldRoman coins had caught her fancy one day in a bric-à-brac shop, and shewalked straight toward it, only pausing by the way to buy a pale blueiridescent pitcher at Salviate's for Cecy Slack, and see it carefullyrolled in seaweed and soft paper. 

The price of the bracelet was a little more than she expected, and quitea long process of bargaining was necessary to reduce it to the sum shehad to spend. She had just succeeded and was counting out the money whenMrs. Ashe and her brother appeared, having spied her from the oppositeside of the Piazza, where they were choosing last photographs at Naga's. Katy showed her purchase and explained that it was a present; "for ofcourse I should never walk out in cold blood and buy a bracelet formyself, " she said with a laugh. 

"This is a fascinating little shop, " said Mrs. Ashe. "I wonderwhat is the price of that queer old chatelaine with the bottleshanging from it. "

The price was high; but Mrs. Ashe was now tolerably conversant withshopping Italian, which consists chiefly of a few words repeated manytimes over, and it lowered rapidly under the influence of her _troppo's_and _è molto caro's_, accompanied with telling little shrugs and looksof surprise. In the end she bought it for less than two thirds of whathad been originally asked for it. As she put the parcel in her pocket, her brother said, --

"If you have done your shopping now, Polly, can't you come out for alast row?"

"Katy may, but I can't, " replied Mrs. Ashe. "The man promised to bringme gloves at six o'clock, and I must be there to pay for them. Takeher down to the Lido, Ned. It's an exquisite evening for the water, and the sunset promises to be delicious. You can take the time, can'tyou, Katy?"

Katy could. 

Mrs. Ashe turned to leave them, but suddenly stopped short. 

"Katy, look! Isn't that a picture!"

The "picture" was Amy, who had come to the Piazza with Mrs. Swift, tofeed the doves of St. Mark's, which was one of her favorite amusements. These pretty birds are the pets of all Venice, and so accustomed tobeing fondled and made much of by strangers, that they are perfectlytame. Amy, when her mother caught sight of her, was sitting on themarble pavement, with one on her shoulder, two perched on the edge ofher lap, which was full of crumbs, and a flight of others circling roundher head. She was looking up and calling them in soft tones. Thesunlight caught the little downy curls on her head and made themglitter. The flying doves lit on the pavement, and crowded round her, their pearl and gray and rose-tinted and white feathers, their scarletfeet and gold-ringed eyes, making a shifting confusion of colors, asthey hopped and fluttered and cooed about the little maid, unstartledeven by her clear laughter. Close by stood Nurse Swift, observant andgrimly pleased. 

The mother looked on with happy tears in her eyes. "Oh, Katy, thinkwhat she was a few weeks ago and look at her now! Can I ever bethankful enough?"

She squeezed Katy's hand convulsively and walked away, turning her headnow and then for another glance at Amy and the doves; while Ned and Katysilently crossed to the landing and got into a gondola. It was theperfection of a Venice evening, with silver waves lapsing and lullingunder a rose and opal sky; and the sense that it was their last row onthose enchanted waters made every moment seem doubly precious. 

I cannot tell you exactly what it was that Ned Worthington said to Katyduring that row, or why it took so long to say it that they did not getin till after the sun was set, and the stars had come out to peep attheir bright, glinting faces, reflected in the Grand Canal. In fact, noone can tell; for no one overheard, except Giacomo, the brownyellow-jacketed gondolier, and as he did not understand a word ofEnglish he could not repeat the conversation. Venetian boatmen, however, know pretty well what it means when a gentleman and lady, both young, find so much to say in low tones to each other under the gondola hood, and are so long about giving the order to return; and Giacomo, deeplysympathetic, rowed as softly and made himself as imperceptible as hecould, --a display of tact which merited the big silver piece with whichLieutenant Worthington "crossed his palm" on landing. 

Mrs. Ashe had begun to look for them long before they appeared, but Ithink she was neither surprised nor sorry that they were so late. Katykissed her hastily and went away at once, --"to pack, " she said, --andNed was equally undemonstrative; but they looked so happy, both of them, that "Polly dear" was quite satisfied and asked no questions. 

Five days later the parting came, when the "Florio" steamer put into theport of Genoa for passengers. It was not an easy good-by to say. Mrs. Ashe and Amy both cried, and Mabel was said to be in deep afflictionalso. But there were alleviations. The squadron was coming home in theautumn, and the officers would have leave to see their friends, and ofcourse Lieutenant Worthington must come to Burnet--to visit his sister. Five months would soon go, he declared; but for all the cheerfulassurance, his face was rueful enough as he held Katy's hand in a longtight clasp while the little boat waited to take him ashore. 

After that it was just a waiting to be got through with till theysighted Sandy Hook and the Neversinks, --a waiting varied with peeps atMarseilles and Gibraltar and the sight of a whale or two and one distanticeberg. The weather was fair all the way, and the ocean smooth. Amy wasnever weary of lamenting her own stupidity in not having taken MariaMatilda out of confinement before they left Venice. 

"That child has hardly been out of the trunk since we started, " shesaid. "She hasn't seen anything except a little bit of Nice. I shallreally be ashamed when the other children ask her about it. I think Ishall play that she was left at boarding-school and didn't come toEurope at all! Don't you think that would be the best way, mamma?"

"You might play that she was left in the States-prison for having donesomething naughty, " suggested Katy; but Amy scouted this idea. 

"She never does naughty things, " she said, "because she never doesanything at all. She's just stupid, poor child! It's not her fault. "

The thirty-six hours between New York and Burnet seemed longer than allthe rest of the journey put together, Katy thought. But they ended atlast, as the "Lake Queen" swung to her moorings at the familiar wharf, where Dr. Carr stood surrounded with all his boys and girls just as theyhad stood the previous October, only that now there were no clouds onanybody's face, and Johnnie was skipping up and down for joy instead ofgrief. It was a long moment while the plank was being lowered from thegangway; but the moment it was in place, Katy darted across, firstashore of all the passengers, and was in her father's arms. 

Mrs. Ashe and Amy spent two or three days with them, while looking uptemporary quarters elsewhere; and so long as they stayed all seemed ahappy confusion of talking and embracing and exclaiming, anddistributing of gifts. After they went away things fell into theircustomary train, and a certain flatness became apparent. Everything hadhappened that could happen. The long-talked-of European journey wasover. Here was Katy at home again, months sooner than they expected; yetshe looked remarkably cheerful and content! Clover could not understandit; she was likewise puzzled to account for one or two privateconversations between Katy and papa in which she had not been invited totake part, and the occasional arrival of a letter from "foreign parts"about whose contents nothing was said. 

"It seems a dreadful pity that you had to come so soon, " she said oneday when they were alone in their bedroom. "It's delightful to have you, of course; but we had braced ourselves to do without you till October, and there are such lots of delightful things that you could have beendoing and seeing at this moment. "

"Oh, yes, indeed, " replied Katy, but not at all as if she wereparticularly disappointed. 

"Katy Carr, I don't understand you, " persisted Clover. "Why don't youfeel worse about it? Here you have lost five months of the mostsplendid time you ever had, and you don't seem to mind it a bit! Why, if I were in your place my heart would be perfectly broken. And youneedn't have come, either; that's the worst of it. It was just a whimof Polly's. Papa says Amy might have stayed as well as not. Why aren'tyou sorrier, Katy?"

"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps because I had so much as it was, --enough tolast all my life, I think, though I _should_ like to go again. You can'timagine what beautiful pictures are put away in my memory. "

"I don't see that you had so awfully much, " said the aggravated Clover;"you were there only a little more than six months, --for I don't countthe sea, --and ever so much of that time was taken up with nursing Amy. You can't have any pleasant pictures of _that_ part of it. "

"Yes, I have, some. "

"Well, I should really like to know what. There you were in a dark room, frightened to death and tired to death, with only Mrs. Ashe and the oldnurse to keep you company--Oh, yes, that brother was there part of thetime; I forgot him--"

Clover stopped short in sudden amazement. Katy was standing with herback toward her, smoothing her hair, but her face was reflected in theglass. At Clover's words a sudden deep flush had mounted in Katy'scheeks. Deeper and deeper it burned as she became conscious of Clover'sastonished gaze, till even the back of her neck was pink. Then, as ifshe could not bear it any longer, she put the brush down, turned, andfled out of the room; while Clover, looking after her, exclaimed in atone of sudden comical dismay, --

"What does it mean? Oh, dear me! is that what Katy is going to do next?"