‘Ah, well, I may be wrong; but I shall be delighted to renew my acquaintance with my good friend. Is Mr. Torwood with him still? They were constant companions in days of old.’ ‘Yes; but they cannot be so now. Mr. Torwood is ill, I believe. I think he is trying German baths or something. Oh yes; and he has gone on a sea-voyage now. Mr. Debenham went to Germany a little while ago to arrange it. I suppose he will come here for a visit when he is well.’ ‘My friend Filippo must miss him. He used to follow him about like his shadow.’ ‘I cannot fancy Philip doing that,’ Roma said, with a little laugh. ‘He is much too independent. He seems quite happy here, though I am sure he is fond of his friend.’ ‘I suppose he is too well satisfied with his accession to wealth and importance, to have much thought to spare for anything else.’ ‘I don’t know. I should not think he was that sort of man. I fancy he really liked travelling about better than he likes living in one place. But he knows his duty as a landowner, and I believe he does it very well. You will find Mr. Debenham very popular here.’ Roma spoke with some little warmth. She fancied, she hardly knew why, that the stranger had thrown some slight disparagement upon Philip Debenham, and she did not approve his tone. ‘I think Mr. Debenham always was popular,’ assented Signor Pagliadini readily and pleasantly. ‘I always found him most interesting and agreeable. I am fond of the English, I think. I am looking forward to my stay amongst them. I wonder if I shall meet any other friends here. I suppose that would be too much good fortune.’ ‘It is not very likely,’ answered Roma. ‘For there are very few people at Ladywell—it is quite a remote place. Mr. Belassis has never been abroad, or his family either; and except for them, there are hardly any more people just round here.’ A few questions about the Belassis family and the neighbourhood kept the ball of conversation going some minutes longer; but the subject of his friend Philip Debenham was evidently of much greater interest to the stranger, as was but natural, and Roma was telling him a few general facts about the people at Ladywell, when the maid knocked at the door to announce that Mr. Meredith was awake, and would like to see the gentleman. Roma went to introduce the stranger to her father, and then she retired, leaving; the two men to make their own way together. She had not been long in her studio when a well-known step came ringing down the long passage, and she had barely time to fling a cloth over the bust of Maud, before Tor had entered, as he now did almost at will, greeting her in frank, brotherly fashion. ‘Well, Roma, how is the world going with you to-day? How is your father?’ ‘Better, thanks; much more like himself every day. Have you seen him?’ ‘No. I heard a jabber of Italian going on in his room, so I walked past and came here. Whom has he got with him to-day?’ ‘An Italian gentleman—an old friend of yours.’ ‘Of mine?’