"Thank you. I am as well as I hope to be, until I can go home to
America, and be once more with my baby."
"It is difficult to realize that you are a mother. How old is this darling, who steals so many of your thoughts?"
"Oh, quite a large girl now! able to write me long delightful letters; still in memory and imagination she remains my baby, for I have not seen her for nearly seven years."
"Indeed I you must have married when a mere child?"
"Yes, unfortunately I did, and lost my husband, became a destitute widow when I was scarcely older than my own daughter now is. Mr. Waul, this is your countryman, General Laurance; and doubtless you have mutual acquaintances in the United States."
They proceeded to the carriage, and as he assisted her to enter it,
General Laurance asked:
"Will you grant me the privilege of accompanying you next week to
Baiæ?"
"I cannot promise that."
"Then allow me to call upon you to-morrow."
"To-morrow will be the day for my exercises in Italian recitation and declamation. I am desirous of perfecting myself in the delicate inflections of this sweet intoxicating language, which is as deliciously soft as its native skies, and golden as its Capri vintage. I long to electrify these fervid enthusiastic yet critical Neapolitans with one of their own favourite impassioned Italian dramas."