“BABBO.” Hera was able to utter a heartfelt thanksgiving that her father had not urged her to the marriage. She was glad he had done nothing in that affair to lessen the respect for him which she mingled with her love. There was a letter from a comrade of the Brianza--the little Marchioness di Tramonta; she wrote from the eminence of almost a year of married life. Letters from girl friends--dainty missives in cream and lilac--conveyed glowing wishes for a bright future. Typewritten letters in printed envelopes had haunted Tarsis from the hour of his arrival in Paris. And now they pursued him to London. Thanks to the eclipse of the honeymoon, he found opportunity to read and answer many of them, as well as to spend a part of the day in Lombard street on “urgent matters of business,” as he explained to his bride. Hera sent her father a most cheerful reply. “To-day,” she said, in closing, “I have had an interesting experience in dreary London. I promised you to pay a visit to the Duchess of Claychester. I did so this afternoon, and I am glad indeed. You did not tell me, _babbo_, that the Duchess is one of those English ladies of whom we read in Italy because of their work among the poor. We had luncheon in her house in Cavendish Square, then went to a place called a ‘settlement,’ of which she is chief patroness. It is a large modern building in the midst of the most squalid section of Marylebone--a quarter, I am told, that for human wretchedness is worse than the East End one hears so much about in the novels. My heart turned sick at the sights. Is it possible that we have anything so bad in Milan? Signor Forza told me of the poor of our Porta Ticinese quarter and I have heard about them from others. I have never been there, yet I cannot believe it equals the miserable life of this London slum. Now, what I saw gave me an idea. And what do you think it is? That I may be useful in the world! Yes, and in the way that the Duchess of Claychester is; but among our own people in Milan. I learned all that I could about the work.