In Italy she could live frugally, as the peasants lived; and all at once Toni felt a great nostalgia for the glowing South, with its sunshine and hot blue skies, its orange-groves, its languorous noons and warm, scented nights. The Italian blood in her--the blood transmitted to her by her mother, spoke in its turn; and suddenly Toni felt that in that land of warmth and colour she could find the rest and peace for which her sorely-driven soul cried out.... And then the miracle happened. Later that evening she was standing on the platform of another great station, waiting her turn to approach the booking-office where she might obtain her ticket to Italy--and home--when a wail in a thin foreign voice fell upon her ear, and she turned round to face a dark and agitated-looking young woman, neatly dressed, who was bewailing herself in the fluent Italian of the lower classes. "What is it? Can I help you?" Toni spoke impulsively, sorry for the young woman even in the midst of her own numbing grief; and the other turned round in astonishment at hearing her own tongue. "Oh, Signorina!" She evidently took Toni for a compatriot. "Such a misfortune has overcome me--I do not know what is to be done. I am here with my charges"--two sleepy-looking English children stood yawning beside her--"on the way to Naples, and behold, the English Signora--the governess, you understand--who was to have come with us to deliver the children safely to their parents is at the last moment unable to come." "But why can't she come?" "_Non lo so!_" The woman shrugged her shoulders. "She sends me but a telegram to the waiting-room--an accident, illness--I know not--but she does not come, and I must go alone with the two little ones, who are both delicate and will be ill the whole journey through!" A wild inspiration flashed into Toni's mind. "You go to Naples?" she said. "I too wish to go, but hardly care to undertake the journey alone. May I then come with you and help you with the little ones?" The Italian's quick mind grasped the idea at once; and she foresaw with delighted gratitude that the journey might be shorn of half its terrors if the plan were carried out. She poured forth a stream of voluble explanations. She had already taken the tickets for the party; and she was certain that her employer, a wealthy English lady, would be only too grateful if the Signorina would accept the fare in return for her help in the matter. A carriage had been reserved for the party, and the whole journey might be taken in complete comfort and security, since this so fortunate meeting with a compatriot. To Toni the idea came as a veritable boon. In her turn, she saw all the personal benefits of the plan; and, after all, since she could be of real, practical assistance, she saw no reason why she should scruple to avail herself of the Italian nurse's offer.