write to her, or I could send Lizzy to say that I was confined to bed, and ill. Would n't that be a flare up! By Jove! if I could only see the match as it came off between them, I 'd do _that_. Not but I know Georgy would win; she 'd come out so strong as 'Grande Dame;' the half-bred 'un would have no chance. Still, there would be a race, and a close one, for Lizzy has her own turn of speed; and if she had the breeding--” And as he got thus far in his ruminations, he had reached the Palazzo Gondi, where his sister-in-law lived. With a sort of sullen courage he rang the bell, and was shown in; her Ladyship was dressing, but would be down in a moment. Beecher had now some minutes alone, and he passed them scrutinizing the room and its appurtenances. All was commoner and more homely than he looked for. Not many indications of comfort; scarcely any of luxury. What might this mean? Was her settlement so small as to exact this economy, or was it a voluntary saving? If so, it was the very reverse of all her former tastes, for she was essentially one who cultivated splendor and expense. This problem was still puzzling him, when the door opened, and she entered. He advanced rapidly to meet her, and saluted her on each cheek. There was a strange affectation of cordiality on each side. Prize-fighters shake hands ere they double them up into catapults for each other's heads; but the embrace here was rather more like the kiss the victim on the scaffold bestows upon his executioner. Seated side by side on the sofa, for a few minutes neither uttered a word; at last she said, in a calm, low voice, “We had hoped to see you before this,--_he_ looked anxiously for your coming.” Beecher heaved a heavy sigh; in that unhappy delay was comprised all the story of his calamities. And how to begin--how to open the narrative? “I wrote as many as five letters,” resumed she; “some addressed to Fordyce's, others to the care of Mr. Davenport Dunn.” “Not one of them ever reached me.” “Very strange, indeed,” said she, with the smile of faintest incredulity; “letters so seldom miscarry nowadays. Stranger, still, that none of your other correspondents should have apprised you of your brother's state; there was ample time to have done it.” “I know nothing of it I vow to Heaven I had not the slightest suspicion of it!” “Telegraphs, too, are active agencies in these days, and I wrote to Fordyce to use every exertion to acquaint you.” “I can only repeat what I have said already, that I was utterly ignorant of everything till I arrived at Baden; there I accidentally met Twining--”