Thus the day passed merrily away, till the gilded Flora that leaned against the timepiece pointed her wand toward the hour when their father was accustomed to return.

CHAPTER IV.

Floracita was still in the full career of fun, when footsteps were heard approaching; and, as usual, she bounded forth to welcome her father.  Several men, bearing a palanquin on their shoulders, were slowly ascending the piazza.  She gave one glance at their burden, and uttered a shrill scream.  Rosabella hastened to her in great alarm.  Tulipa followed, and quickly comprehending that something terrible had happened, she hurried away to summon Madame Guirlande.  Rosabella, pale and trembling, gasped out, “What has happened to my father?”

Franz Blumenthal, a favorite clerk of Mr. Royal’s, replied, in a low, sympathizing tone, “He was writing letters in the counting-room this afternoon, and when I went in to speak to him, I found him on the floor senseless.  We called a doctor immediately, but he failed to restore him.”

“O, call another doctor!” said Rosa, imploringly; and Floracita almost shrieked, “Tell me where to go for a doctor.”

“We have already summoned one on the way,” said young Blumenthal, “but I will go to hasten him";—­and, half blinded by his tears, he hurried into the street.

The doctor came in two minutes, and yet it seemed an age.  Meanwhile the wretched girls were chafing their father’s cold hands, and holding sal-volatile to his nose, while Madame Guirlande and Tulipa were preparing hot water and hot cloths.  When the physician arrived, they watched his countenance anxiously, while he felt the pulse and laid his hand upon the heart.  After a while he shook his head and said, “Nothing can be done.  He is dead.”

Rosabella fell forward, fainting, on the body.  Floracita uttered shriek upon shriek, while Madame Guirlande and Tulipa vainly tried to pacify her.  The doctor at last persuaded her to swallow some valerian, and Tulipa carried her in her arms and laid her on the bed.  Madame Guirlande led Rosa away, and the two sisters lay beside each other, on the same pillows where they had dreamed such happy dreams the night before.  Floracita, stunned by the blow that had fallen on her so suddenly, and rendered drowsy by the anodyne she had taken, soon fell into an uneasy slumber, broken by occasional starts and stifled sobs.  Rosabella wept silently, but now and then a shudder passed over her, that showed how hard she was struggling with grief.  After a short time, Flora woke up bewildered.  A lamp was burning in the farther part of the room, and Madame Guirlande, who sat there in spectacles and ruffled cap, made a grotesque black shadow on the wall.  Floracita started up, screaming, “What is that?” Madame Guirlande went to her, and she and Rosa spoke soothingly, and soon she remembered all.

“O, let me go home with you” she said to Madame “I am afraid to stay here.”