A few weeks after Violet left, Harry appeared in Florence. He had just missed her letter.
"I came to bring you both home," he said. "I finished my contract successfully, and gave myself this little vacation."
Harry was dismayed to find that Violet was gone.
"But we will return directly, and arrive in time, perhaps, to greet her as she gets home."
Monica urged,—
"But you must not keep him long. See how much he has done in Italy! You will see he must come back again."
"Monsieur" had been for his statue, and was to send for it the next day, more than satisfied with it.
Harry was astonished.
"Five hundred dollars! It would take me long enough to work that out!
Ah, Ernest, your hammering is worth more than mine!"
Harry's surprise was not merely for the money earned. When he saw the white marble figure, which brought into the poor room where it stood grandeur and riches and life and grace, he wondered still more.