"It's the mother that cared the most—it was the mother who was so miserable."
"Ah! but it was the father who let the little boy slip into the water; it was a thousand times worse for him," Irene said.
CHAPTER VI.
THE VILLA LUCIA.
"Well, grannie, is she coming?—is Irene coming?"
The question was asked eagerly by a boy of nine years old, who came into the pretty sitting-room of the Villa Lucia at San Remo, with his hands full of pale lilac crocuses. "Is she coming, grannie dear?"
"Do not rush into the room before your sister, Willy. See, you have knocked the basket out of her hand."