pare the bed for her

my dear?" asked Mrs. Vervain

mot

think you would see yourself how you suffer in the end by givi

," murmured the p

n of an apology; you might

ify me; I didn'

ito had been so uniformly kind to us. I begin to believe that Mr. Ferris caught yo

her? You can talk to me while you're un

e best way to get me quieted down. But no; you must always have your own way Don't twitch me, my dear

u are all I hav

as if I were any better off. Have I anybo

f those things

lito was right; no one ever saw you offer me disrespect or unkindness. There, there

ting it in order, and drawing the curtains closer to keep out the near dawn. Her mother

rily into an arm-chair beside the bed. Her hands fell into her lap; her head drooped sadly forward

vernal day was beginning to stir from the light, brief drowse of the vernal night. A crown of angry

tter and curtain. Her mother was supporting herself on one elbow

you speak?" a

er thin hands on the pillow, and seemed to be sinking, sinking do

hed her mother's face, and then chafed her hands. Mrs. Vervain slowly revived; she opened her eyes, then closed th

coffee. She put her finger to her lip, and motioned her not to enter,

and would like your coffee in bed. Oh, misericordia!" cried the girl, still in

at down beside her, and fell asle

en you must drink your cof

down here. I will serve myself, Nina. Go call the gondola, please. I am going out, at once, an

s and bestowed a touch or two upon yesterday's toilet, studied the effect a moment, and turned away. She ran back for a

Ring," she said to the gondolier, "and say that on

been watching her approach in mute wonder. "Why, Miss Ve

ee you," said Florida, loo

come

ad better come up. Yes,

e had never seen it lovelier, and he had a strange pride in her being there, though the disorder of the place ought to have humbled him. She looked over it with a certain childlike, timid curiosity,

of oil-colors and tobacco-smoke. "The woman's putting my office to ri

how to take Miss Vervain; he was willing enough to make light of her grand moods, but now she was too evidently unhappy for mocking; at the same time he did not care to invoke a snub by a prematurely sympathetic demeanor. His mind ran on the events of the day before, and he thought this visit probably related somehow to Don I

rida, hoarsely. "I mean," she hurried on to say, "

ed Ferris, eagerly. "She must have been fearfully tired by tha

frail, you know. You must have noticed how

vain's case, though she talked a great deal about her ill-health, he had noticed it rather less than usual, she had so great spirit. He recalled now that he had thought her

that we could go to in need. We are so far from any one we know, or help of any kind." She seemed to be trying to account to herself, rather than to Ferris, for what she w

to a doctor's," sa

, I won't t

no tro

erris looked at her perplexedly, as she rose. "Just give me the

e address. "There," he said, giving it to her

-imploring look at him. "You must have all sorts of people applying to yo

" said

that I've asked this favor of

wered Ferris, thinking for the third or fo

only mean, don't speak of it to my mother. Not," she added, "but what I want her to know everyt

andkerchief; he saw her lips tremb

said briskly, with a sort of airy sob,

nd down the stairs, the serva

on his sympathy, and then trying to snub him, and breaking down in the effort. It was all of a piece, and the piece was bad; yes, she had an ugly temper; and yet she had magnanimous traits too. These contradictions, which in his reverie he felt rather than formulated, made him smile, as he stood on his balcony bathed by the morning air and sunlight, in fresh, strong ignorance of the whole mystery of women's nerves. These caprices even charmed him.

op, turn round, and come back to the c

itten on it, "I hope Mrs. Vervain is better. Don't let me come in if it's any disturbance." He looked for a moment at what he had written, dimly conscious that it was patronizing, and when he entered he saw that Miss Vervain stood on the defensive and f

ordial, apparently better and not

r, you know. Perhaps a little too old, now. Years do make a d

much like a boy. "Even at twenty-six I found it pleasant to take a nap t

replied Florida, indifferently, an

Don Ippolito, and wondered that the priest had not come about, all day. She told a

red again in the same words why Don I

ws when to time his visits." Mrs. Vervain did not notice his bit

nd she glanced at him as though she had

"Yes, there's a moon," he

ffered him her hand. He thought that it shook in his,

e should have been repaid in this sort, and the rebuff with which his sympathy had just been met was vulgar; there was no other name for it but vulgarity. Yet he could not relate this quality to the face of the young girl as he constantly beheld it in his h