"Don't excite yourself. You will make
your headache worse."

"Oh, my headache is gone."

"Aye; but it may come back. It is of a
kind that may return at any moment."

Still the old sneer in his tone! And
something subdued and lurking in his
whole manner, that she could not define to
herself, but that made its impression upon
her.

"Your news! Did you send for me to
tell it to me?"

"Y—yes, partly, mia cara."

"Speak then!" she cried, with a flash of
impatient temper that made him smile.

"Well—the news I heard yesterday, is
that Her Majesty's ship Furibond is here at
Naples, under the command of my old
acquaintance Captain Reginald Burr."

"Well?" said Veronica, after a moment's
pause of expectation.

"He is a very pleasant fellow, very
pleasant indeed. I met him years ago at
Spezia."

Veronica twisted her fingers more
impatiently in the amber necklace, and drew
her black brows together. She thought that
Sir John had simply introduced this topic
to avoid the turn their conversation had been
taking, and to break the thread of it.

"What is his pleasantness to me?" she
exclaimed, pettishly.

"His pleasantness? Not much. But his
presence is a good deal to you."

"How? What do you mean?"

"Veronica, you know what I said just
now, about our trust in one another. Faith
is to be crowned at last. It has not been
my fault—as you ought to know—that you
have been kept in suspense so long. You
have blamed me; but unjustly, as you will
find."

She seemed stricken motionless, with her
eyes fixed on his face; only the breath came
and went quickly between her parted lips.

"I am not well enough to travel to
Florence," he continued, watching her eager
face with a strange, gloating look. " But—
listen, Veronica mia bella!" He drew her
head down to his lips and whispered a short
sentence in her ear.

Her face glowed and changed like a
scorched, drooping July rose after a summer
shower. She sprang to her feet and clasped
her hands together. In the sudden gesture
of withdrawing her fingers from the necklace,
the string snapped, and the amber
beads rolled scattered hither and thither
about the floor.

"You consent?" said Sir John.

"Yes, yes, yes. I—I have wronged you
sometimes in my thoughts. Forgive me!"
she exclaimed, impulsively, taking his hand
in hers and kissing it.

"You will remember that it was this day
I conceived the plan. This day. You will
keep in your memory the date of the day
on which you went out so early to the Villa
Reale for your headache."

"I am not likely to need anything to
remind me of to-day."

"No; but there is a good deal in association.
Association aids memory so
wonderfully. Now, tesoro mio, ring for Paul,
and leave me. I am a little tired and over-
excited."

"I will not disobey you to-day of all days,"
she said. Her countenance was radiant,
her step elastic. Before she went away, she
stooped to gather up the amber beads.

"There is some superstition about losing
amber you have once worn," she said, smiling.
"They say it is unlucky. But I shall
prove the fallacy of the notion. My amber
necklace broke and fell, at a moment of
great happiness and good fortune."

"Yes. You will prove the fallacy of the
superstition quite triumphantly. Ha!—it
is curious—we, at least, may defy augury."

CHAPTER XI. HER MAJESTY'S SHIP THE
               FURIBOND.

THE Prince Alberto Barletti passed the
greater part of his time in Paris. He was
a poor man for his rank; and if he could
have found some way of increasing his
income without risk, he would have been
very glad to avail himself of it. But he
shrank from the idea of speculation. As to
earning money, that was out of the question.
And a desirable way of increasing his
income without risk or trouble, had not yet
occurred to him. One day, however, fortune
seemed to remember him in a good-natured
mood.

A company of English speculators
commenced operations in Naples. They were
to build and beautify. The first preliminary
of course was to destroy. Many houses
must be pulled down and their proprietors
reimbursed. A good deal of diplomacy was
expended on the powers that ruled such
matters. People who possessed influence
were canvassed diligently.

It chanced that Prince Barletti was,
rightly or wrongly, supposed to be one of
the influential. But how to obtain his good
will? The English speculators, some of
them, would have been a little clumsy in
conducting the affair. But they had a clever