The Innocent Adventuress

eron by reading a book to herself in the adjoining room-no, they were safely busy with piano and violin, and s

doorway looked into the pretentious reception room where the fiancés were amusing themselves with their music and their whisperings. It wa

ent when the sett

, and, wanting another book, she had gone to the shelves and thr

was speaking of his three daughters, Lucia, Julietta and Maria Angelina-and she k

a had been more complaisant than he should have be

ith Mamma for a pencil wen

proclaimed bitterly, "will

smile, a faint little smile o

ghter of the house, but she would need no more, for Maria was eighteen, as white as a lily an

poor Jul

name her Julietta? And born in Verona! A pretty senti

pa's sudden chuckle after his e

d, "then would Maria Angelina be for the

ot laugh. Her pen

the faith, my dear, for then we might arrange this mat

nvent?" cried Mamma in a

but she knew that

to coif Saint Cathe

girl," said the Cont

nows her ex

ery well-with

all that is left for the two of them

directly with facts-a proceeding he

sponsibility for Julietta-dear Julietta, with her dumpy figure and ugly face.

known that Juliett

lietta's sensitive, shamed spirit would suffer and bleed. She could see her partnerless at balls, lugged heavily about to teas and dinners, shrinking eagerly and hopeless

the war had made things very difficult, and now peace had made them more difficult still. There had been one awful time when it had looked as if the carriages and horses would have to go and they would be reduced to sharing a barouche with some one else in secret, proud distress-like the Manzios a

er's lips brought the eaves

hat the Conte

was a girl, Maria dimly remembered having heard-and they would give Maria a chance to meet people. . . . Men did not ask settlements in America. The

Count objected. Mar

protested, but swallowed that foolish

never do to risk the cost of

cost in any case was prohibit

he grumbled, "But to lose the child?" she broke out

fully, "But it will

to ruffle Mamma's soft, light hair and at his movement Maria Angelina fled swiftly from those curtains back to h

d. . . . Travel. . . . Adven

was unbelievable. .

rd of the sha

ll that was the cold breath of a terrific responsibility. She felt herself the hope, the s

n an old carved frame where a dove was struggling in a falcon's talons while

was the skin from Mamma-and now she wondered if it were t

ce, and her lips were mere scarlet threads. The beauties

ed even to her coro

in, of the troubling glamour of the red little mouth. In the clear definition of the delicate features, the arch of the high eyebrows, the

the successful, and Maria Angelina turned from her dim glass with a flame of scarlet across her pall

Angelina h

sh of the eyes toward the young man, and Paolo, all ardor as he was for

me merry passes with t

ented the

"You will be in pinafores until our poor

ria felt furiously,

ould not be left unwed and defenseless to that

ancy for mail revealed that a letter had already been sent, until that expectancy was rewarded

ld know Mamma's country and Mamma's relatives. They had a daughter about Maria Angelina's age so Maria Angelina

and laughed bewilderingly at her and a Cousin Jane with beautiful blonde hair and cool white gowns. Their daughter, Ruth, had not been

school for a winter in Rome and that Mamma had bestirred herself to discover

was to visit

Italy at your age," cried Mamma. "And-who kn

wncast for fear her mother would read their discomfort and her knowl

ucia with a shrill laugh. "Such expenditure, when y

m has cost the fortune," Maria found her wicked little

t of one of you but all. Now no more words, m

ere were discussions, decisions, debates and conjectures and consultations. A thousand preparations to be pushed in haste, and at once the big bedroom of Mamma blossomed with delicate fabrics, with bright ribbons and frilly laces, and amid

that even Lucia was inspired to lend her clever

ng-that would be too odd!" she complained with the

for it, the older girl cherished her instinctive objection to any pleasure that d

ousins may not easily find a suitable chaperon for your sister's return. A

ina perceived that she was being lef

ng was upon the girl before she divined the coming p

of one already lost to her world, and her eyes clung to the figures of her f

erstood it was too late to weep. It was necessary to go. The magnitude of the sums

was so des

d gone Contessas, and she watched the square of moonlight travel over the painted cherubs on the ceiling. There was always a lump i

e her, slept ve

at last look of Mamma and that last clasp

was constrained and repetitious in the grip of her emotion, as they stood together, just ou

ean and I shall be waiting to hear. . . . And remember that but few of your ideas of America may be true. Americans are not all the typ

iveness divined a no

diently, tightening her cl

d not said that a dozen times before! "Because American girls do things it may be not be wise fo

," said the

e can be little to pay when you are a guest. But se

, Ma

urn your head. You will be wise-Oh, I tr

ted a face that shone with confidence and unders

nly in English and took that fac

she began again abrup

cautions. And the

such young eyes that smiled so confidently into

sitors to be away. Just one mo

he mother went down the ship's ladder into the s

l she was not so wise-and not so very

oolishly. And something in her young breast wanted to cry after that boat, "Take me back-take me back to

ear anxious Mamma, she k

chief long after she had lost the

bay to beautiful Naples. . . . Suddenly her heart quickened. Vesuvius was moving. The far-off shores of Italy were slipping b

lina was o