“Not for you, perhaps,” she replied, with all the airs of a grand lady, “but you forget, Baron, that I cannot start on a wedding-tour, in a black dress and a widow’s bonnet! You must be good enough to draw my small principal from the bank for me, and allow me a few weeks in which to spend it, so that I may be able to appear as your wife should do!” “A few weeks!” exclaimed Von Steinberg, with really comical dismay, “I will send you the money this afternoon, and surely a few days should see you fully equipped. You need not wait to have things made in London. Get just what may be necessary for the moment, and buy your wardrobe in Paris!” “In Paris!” exclaimed Hannah, “will you really take me to Paris?” “Certainly! and to stay there if you desire it! There is no place on earth to which I would not take you, Hannah, if you told me to do so, but I think a residence in Paris will suit us both entirely.” He lavished kisses on her flat, good-humoured face, and Hannah returned them in kind, for a passionate temperament was not the least of her virtues. Before they parted that morning, it was decided that the marriage should take place privately in a fortnight’s time, and that they were to leave England the same day for the Continent. Hannah promised she would give no more public séances, and really looked quite handsome under the prospect of renewed happiness--not to say the acquisition of the house in Portland Place, and all its treasures, to which her eyes had so longingly turned. Once more by himself at home, Karl von Steinberg had leisure to wonder if his action of the morning had been wise. Hannah had not proved, in all things, quite amenable to the discipline of his old friend, but then Ricardo _was_ old--he told himself--and May and December never did hit it off well together yet. He was far more suitable in age to Hannah, and would prove a livelier companion. It was astonishing to remember how young she was--only nineteen--and yet so worldly-wise in some things, and in others so quick and cunning! She had wonderfully developed since her marriage--no one would know her for the same girl--she doubtless possessed vast capabilities, which travel and his society would tend to unfold. The Baron quite anticipated bringing back an accomplished lady from the Continent. And he was not far wrong! Hannah _had_ developed powers of observation and attainment, which bid fair to let her stop at nothing short of excellence. Each time the Baron met her, face to face, the half-formed doubts which he held, as to the wisdom of the marriage, faded away, and left him with but one certainty--that he could not live without her. The plans they had formed, then, were faithfully carried out, and within a fortnight, the same Registrar who had married her to Signor Ricardo, transformed Hannah Stubbs into the Baronne von Steinberg--though (as she had previously informed her husband) she always intended to retain her old title of Marchesa di Sorrento.