Year: 1878

Yes, it was to be her hoiday-'all for her.
Nobody else was to have any share in it ex-
,ept myself-that is, if going as her courier,
and general factotum, could be
called having a share in a holiday.


We had been married nearly ten years,
and what with the cares of home and the !
training of numerous olivebranches, she had |
never had any chance of a rest. OF course,
we had been to the seaside frequently, and
all that sort of thing but then surrounded
by children and nurses, these trips lad only
been a continuation of the general London
responsibilities, plus the worries and incon-
venience of lodgings or hotels. Moreover,
within the last few years there had been
some trouble in her family, which had acted
very preudically upon her sensitive and
highstrung nature. So now we were going
away aone-going to leave all the children
at home in the charge of a grandmother
were going abroad for six weeks together
wherever she liked. Her will was to be
paramount | was to be her slave-to pay
the bills and look after the luggage. Her
affection and untiring devotion to her duties
deserved no less. She had thoroughly quail
fled herself for enjoying holiday she had
earned it. Italy she said, where there was
sunlight, beauty and quiet Good I
waved my magician's wand, rubbed the
lamp, or spread the carpet, or did any one of
those wonderful things which necromancers
of yore were wont to do when desiring to be
transported to distant places-or, rather,
resorted to the modern golden equivalent for
such proceedings-and we found ourselves
certainly, as if by magic, at Lucerne. Thence
we were to take it easy, and so logged along
over the St. Gothard Pass, and dropped in
to Italy at the Locarno end of the Lago
Magore.


BY this time she was beginning to enjoy
herself thoroughly she had got over the
fatigue, and already looked much as she did
the day married her. Yes, it was very de-
lightful to see her so well and happy.


why, it is like honeymoon over
again, she said 'or, rather, it is as if there
had been no break, and that it was only the
continuation of those early days


We spent hours and hours upon the lake,
beneath the awnings of the flat-bottomed
boats, those first inceptions of the gondola,
| or we wandered up to the picturesque old
convent or sanctuary Of the Madonna del
Sasso, set like jewel amid the blue hills be-
| hind the town.


And there, in the soft autumn evenings,
we sat and watched the glorious sunset, and
the boundless panorama of alp, plain and
lake, while the bell in the campanile hard
by called the peasantry to vespers, and the
pealing of the deep.toned organ resoundet
through the choir.


| We selected Locarno as halting place
because it was at that time, and is so partly
still, out of the rush of the tourist A prim
tive place, with simple, civil people, willing
to serve and oblige honestly, and without
having for the first question in their minds
What shall we get by it?' Thus we came
to know some of them living up there nea
the sanctuary, and to speak or nod when We
met from time to time.


Notably among these was mother an'
thild-a sweet little chubby cherub of bo,
about t. The italian folk in the Nortl
there are not as rule handsome, but thi
mother was an exception, and the child wa
like her. Superior, too, in all respects, sh
looked better born, bred and nurtured nay
there was even look of culture and refine
ment about her.


Immensely attracted by this pair, my viii
particularly would lose no opportunit


of giving the little one pat and kiss, an


of exchanging pleasant word or two in tn


best italian she could muster with the mott


er, who by degrees on her part began


speak little English, and to take us int


her confidence She explained that she ha
I married an Englishman, a gentleman, sh
5 declared, who h ad died suddenly, more tha
. four years ago, and just before the little On
was born. His family never knew of tn


marriage he had intended, she said, to pre-


claim it, and face the consequences of tn
! mesalliance, as it would be called; but h
I sudden end prevented this, and to this da
: she believed her existence even unknown


her husbands people. But she did not cal
he had left her just enough to live upon, an
I she had come to dwell at Locarno, where he


aged father lived, and whose last days sh


desired to soothe. She was contented wit


the humble life she led there in yonder lttl


wooden chalet-at least until the good Go
K should take him to his rest.


. Would we enter the abode and speak


her father? He was very handsome oil


man, a native of Tuscany, who had see
J better days. 1t mattered little that, or VIII


he had come so far North


Her name was asked


All, her maiden name was one that


past times had struck terror to the foes


liberty she would rather not mention /


Her father even had considered it wise
drop it, and had adopted her sur name, ht
9 married name, the name of her HUSBAND
~ that is.


What, had he taken an English name?


No, not an English name her busban


had been naturalized as an Italian, hs


changed his name for reasons-they did NJ
l. SIGNIFY ana ne was known us piorglo Wan
q ro she was Lucia.


" OF course, we went in and spoke to IL


old farmer.like man, who, partially par


lyzed, always sat by the window of his ne


little house. He received us with the graz


of prince, regretted that his infrmiti


prevented him from doing the honors of Il
etdt neighborhood, SO beautiful as it was.


Naturally we looked in upon him mo


than once but still it was his grandchi
' that was the attraction, my wife declarii
a. that little Paollo was the veriest darlil


she had ever seen, that he reminded her


our youngest, and that she should like


carry him of, probably because we had n


enough of our own.


an riu tn ,n1