Mr. and Mrs. Morelle had come to Italy at this time in company with Mr. and Mrs. Otis, friends of theirs from Boston, and Mrs. Morelle expected to return with them to France. Mr. and Mrs. Otis had now gone on to Naples, which as has already been said, is considerably farther south than Rome. Mrs. Morelle remained at Rome to be with her husband. She expected her friends to return from Naples in a week or two, and in the mean time she and the children, after Mr. Morelle's departure, were to amuse themselves in visiting the palaces and other objects of interest in Rome, and then, on Mr. Otis's return, they were all to set out together for the northward.

Mrs. Morelle received a letter from Mrs. Otis every two or three days, informing her of her movements and plans. These letters came to Mrs. Morelle's bankers, that being the usual mode by which strangers in Rome receive their letters. For, as a general rule, all strangers and travellers in Rome have a letter of credit upon some banker there, to whom they apply for money. They can not well bring money with them, since the money of one country does not usually pass well in another. So they take a letter of credit to a banker, who furnishes them with the money they require, and then they re

pay the money su received to the banker in their own country who gave them the letter of credit.

A full account of the letter of credit which Mrs. Morelle received in New York when she first set out on her travels, is given in the volume of this series called the Orkney Islands.

The banker with whom Mrs. Morelle was in communication at Rome was a distinguished personage named Torlonia. John used often to accompany the courier whom his mother sent from time to time to the bank office in the Torlonia palace, to see if there were any letters.

One day, after his father had been gone about ten days, John came back from Torlonia's with two letters. One was postmarked Alexandria and the other Naples. So John inferred that one was from his father and the other from Mrs. Otis.

Mrs.

These surmises proved to be correct. Morelle opened first the letter which was from her husband, and on perusing it, she was thrown into a state of great agitation. The letter was very brief, but it informed Mrs. Morelle that her husband was seriously sick. He had been taken sick on the voyage, and was now confined to his bed in Alexandria with a high fever. The letter was written by Mr. Morelle's servant man Jolin, who accompanied him in all his journeyings.

The body of the letter, though in John's handwriting, was dictated by Mr. Morelle, but there was a postscript, written by John himself, in which he said he thought Mr. Morelle was very sick, and that if Mrs. Morelle could possibly make any arrangement for the children, he wished that she would come on by the next steamer.

Mrs. Morelle was much alarmed, and for a few minutes much agitated, by the perusal of this letter. She knew very well, however, how important it was for a mother, if she wished her children to be calm and self-possessed in the trying circumstances in which all are sometimes placed, to set them the example herself.

Both

Accordingly, after reading the letter to herself, she read it aloud to Florence and John. the children seemed very much concerned at receiving this intelligence. After a short pause, Florence asked her mother what she thought she should do.

"The first thing is," said Mrs. Morelle, "to find out how much time I have for considering the question." So saying, she rang the bell. Francisco, her courier, immediately appeared. Mrs. Morelle asked him to ascertain for her when the next steamer would leave Civita Vecchia for Alexandria.

The courier went away, and soon returned saying that the steamer would touch at Civita Vecchia on Friday morning.

66 The passengers who intended to take the steamer must leave Rome," he added, " to-morrow at noon."

"And to-day is Wednesday," said Mrs. Morelle. "So I shall have until to-morrow morning to consider what to do, and that is a great thing. It is a very serious question for me to decide."

"And now, mother," said Florence, "here is this other letter-from Mrs. Otis, I suppose." "True," said Mrs. Morelle. "Let us see what she says."

On opening the letter, Mrs. Morelle found that the principal object of it was to say that Mrs. Otis and her husband were intending to leave Naples on Saturday morning, and to be at Rome on the evening of the same day, so as to be ready to set off with Mrs. Morelle and her children for the northward on the Monday following.

"And so, mother," said Florence, “you can go and see father just as well as not. We can stay here very well until Saturday night, and then Mr. and Mrs. Otis will be here, and we can return to America with them."

The case did not seem by any means so plain

to Mrs. Morelle as it did to her daughter. She had two very serious objections to the plan which Florence proposed. One was her extreme un

willingness to ask so great a favor of any of her friends as the taking charge of two children, however considerate and well-trained they might be, on so long a journey and voyage as from Rome through Paris, London and Liverpool to New York; and the second, she was afraid to leave the children alone, even for two days, in a hotel at Rome.

As might naturally be expected, Mrs. Morelle slept very little that night. Long before morning, however, she determined that she would go to her husband.

"The danger to my children," she said to herself, "in leaving them here to go home with. Mrs. Otis is only nominal and imaginary, while that of my husband is serious and real. I will leave them, therefore, and go to him.”