Mr. King had written to George Falkner, to inform him of a situation he had in store for him at Marseilles, and to request a previous meeting in New York, as soon as he could obtain his discharge from the army; being in this, as in all other arrangements, delicately careful to avoid giving annoyance to Mrs. Fitzgerald.  In talking this over with his wife, he said:  “I consider it a duty to go to Marseilles with him.  It will give us a chance to become acquainted with each other; it will shield him from possible impertinences on the passage, on Henriet’s account; and it will be an advantage to him to be introduced as my friend to the American Consul, and some commercial gentlemen of my acquaintance.”

“I am to go with you, am I not?” asked Rosa.  “I am curious to see this young man, from whom I parted, so unconscious of all the strange future, when he was a baby in Tulee’s arms.”

“I think you had better not go, dear,” he replied; “though the loss of your company will deprive me of a great pleasure.  Eulalia would naturally wish to go with us; and as she knows nothing of George’s private history, it would be unwise to excite her curiosity by introducing her to such a striking likeness of Gerald.  But she might stay with Rosen Blumen while you go to New York and remain with me till the vessel sails.  If I meet with no accidents, I shall return in three months; for I go merely to give George a fair start, though, when there, I shall have an eye to some other business, and take a run to Italy to look in upon our good old friends, Madame and the Signor.”

The journey to New York was made at the appointed time, in company with Henriet and her little one.  George had risen to the rank of lieutenant in the army, and had acquired a military bearing that considerably increased the manliness of his appearance.  He was browned by exposure to sun and wind; but he so strongly resembled her handsome Gerald, that Rosa longed to clasp him to her heart.  His wife’s appearance evidently took him by surprise.  “How you have changed!” he exclaimed.  “What a lady you are!  I can hardly believe this is the little Hen I used to make mud pies with.”

She laughed as she answered:  “You are changed, too.  If I have improved, it is owing to these kind friends.  Only think of it, George, though Mrs. King is such a handsome and grand lady, she always called me Mrs. Falkner.”

Mrs. King made several appropriate parting presents to Henriet and little Hetty.  To George she gave a gold watch, and a very beautiful colored photograph of Gerald, in a morocco case, as a souvenir of their brief friendship in the army.