And Minnie ended this question with the air of one who could not be answered, and knew it.

“He’s awful—­perfectly awful!” said Mrs. Willoughby.  “And the way he treated you!  It was so shocking.”

“I know; and that’s just the horrid way he always does,” said Minnie, in a plaintive tone.  “I’m sure I don’t know what to do with him.  And then he’s Lord Hawbury’s friend.  So what are we to do?”

[Illustration:  “LOOK AT THE MAN!”]

“I don’t know, unless we leave Rome at once.”

“But I don’t want to leave Rome,” said Minnie.  “I hate being chased away from places by people—­and they’d be sure to follow me, you know—­and I don’t know what to do.  And oh, Kitty darling, I’ve just thought of something.  It would be so nice.  What do you think of it?”

“What is it?”

“Why, this.  You know the Pope?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh, well, you’ve seen him, you know.”

“Yes; but what has he got to do with it?”

“Why, I’ll get you to take me, and I’ll go to him, and tell him all about it, and about all these horrid men; and I’ll ask him if he can’t do something or other to help me.  They have dispensations and things, you know, that the Pope gives; and I want him to let me dispense with these awful people.”

“Nonsense!” said Mrs. Willoughby.

“I don’t see any nonsense in it at all.  I’m in earnest,” said Minnie; “and I think it’s a great shame.”

“Nonsense!” said her sister again; “the only thing is for you to stay in your room.”

“But I don’t want to stay in my room, and I can’t.”

“Oh dear! what can I do with this child?” exclaimed Mrs. Willoughby, whose patience was giving way.

Upon this Minnie went over and kissed her, and begged to be forgiven; and offered to do any thing that darling Kitty wanted her to do.

After this they talked a good deal over their difficulty, but without being able to see their way out of it more clearly.

That evening they were walking up and down the balcony of the house.  It was a quadrangular edifice, and they had a suite of rooms on the second and third stories.  They were on the balcony of the third story, which looked down into the court yard below.  A fountain was in the middle of this, and the moon was shining brightly.

The ladies were standing looking down, when Minnie gently touched her sister’s arm, and whispered,

“Look at the man!”

“Where?”

“By the fountain.”

Mrs. Willoughby looked, and saw the face of a man who was standing on the other side of the fountain.  His head rose above it, and his face was turned toward them.  He evidently did not know that he was seen, but was watching the ladies, thinking that he himself was unobserved.  The moment that Mrs. Willoughby looked at the face she recognized it.

“Come in,” said she to Minnie.  And drawing her sister after her, she went into the house.