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M I >/ [For The Sunny South .1 UNDER THE LINDEN. BY E. C. FOSTER. My hand is weary of its toil, My feet are growing weak, And paler, paler grows the hue Of roses on my cheek. Oh, lay your hand upon my heart. And feel its throes of pain, And see how cruelly you’re tried To rend my heart in twain. Oh! ’tie no hour now to be wroth, I do not speak to blame, Nor would I kindle on your cheek One burning blush of shame. Come closer to my side, Harry, And let me press your hand. And whisper once, *• Forgiven,” ere We both adjudged shall stand. I would not weep if I were strong, But sorrow will find rent! The solid mountains in their strength Are by upheavals rent. Now press me to your heart, Harry, Though it no more is mine, And kiss once more the faded lip That tells thee I am thine. And oh! forget not when I'm gone, Whene’er this pledge you see, To think of our last tryst with love Beneath the linden tree. You placed it on my hand that eve, And solemn vows were given, You would be true to me through life Or forfeit earth and heaven! Farewell, now, Harry, oh, farewell! And ere next summer tide, I’ll sleep beneath the linden tree, And May will be your bride. “I remember him well, but not the circum stance.” Further conversation was interrupted by the entrance of the housekeeper with her prisoners. The banker motioned Mabel and Mr. Law- Mr. Lawrence simply bowed, and the banker | exclaimed: “ What! Are you not surprised to hear me speak!” “ I am not,” was the calm reply. “Are you not thunderstruck when I tell you rence to his bedside, and said: that I have been able to speak ever since my ill- " ” ^ ’ ’ * ness—that both absence of the sense of speech and hearing have been assumed ?” “lam aware of all that,” said Mr. Lawrence, I “ I have known it from the first.” “And never exposed me!” cried Judge Thomp son excitedly, and rising in bed. wide-spreading mulberry trees, interlaced by clinging vines—and fields green with waving grains and grasses. We passed old, crumbling ruins, and moss-grown Roman arches ; and we saw towns perched upon lofty, inaccessible emi nences, and classic battle-fields—“old in story.” All this diversity of landscape fixed our atten tion until the purple gloom of evening seltled over hill-top and valley, and we had exchanged “We will go to the Hotel,” exclaimed Sal- lie. “Baediker marks it with two stars, and speaks of it in the highest terms.” “ But Murray says that it is only a second- class inn, Sallie,” returned mama, “and recom mends another as the best” “That is just like old fogy Murray,” said Sal- lie, pettishly. “I suppose he was not suffi ciently paid by the other proprietor. I believe “ Mabel, let me acquaint you with a secret. Jonathan Gump is not dead. Can you guess what I would say. Mr. Lawrence will tell you the entire story some day.” the city of the Cssars for the home of Dante in Baediker, and shall go to his hotel.” The two lovers turned to each other. No word and the Medici. The war of the guide-books waged hotly for a of explanation was needed. Mabel knew that *«»»*** few moments, but mamma finally consented to her dead hero was Mr. Lawrence, and she won- “Firenze la Bella!” said our poetic guard, go to Sallie’s hotel. When we reached it the tri- Mr. Lawrence only smiled, and the banker dered why she had not guessed as much long unlocking the door of the railway compartment, umph of Murray was complete. It was indeed continued: before. j We said farewell to a young nun who had been ; a “ second-rate inn,” and so dark and gloomy “Did you know that the robbery and setting The meeting was tender and delicious, and our companion from Rome, and whose spiritual ! were the rooms that although the setting sun on fire of my bank was a farce—that I did both both of them knew how dearly and truly they beauty had suggested to me many a romantic ; s tDl lingered in the sky, we were scarcely able replied Mr. Law- had loved each other. ! story,'and plunged into the noise and confusion | to see - The waiter commenced to light the ean- So soon as the emotions of the re-united lov- j of the railway station. j dies, but was interrupted by a severe rebuke ers had sufficient!}’ subsided, the banker said: [ In an instant we received a warm greeting j from Percy, who, drawing a number of minute “Will you forgive me all the wrong I have done : from mama’s old friend, Mr. Harding, who has | candle-ends from one of his many bags, pro- you ? I am dying, Mabel, and you cannot re- spent the last twenty years dreaming over his ceeded to illumiuate our salon free of expense. ** Mary, this place is horrible,” gasped Sallie. myself?” “It is no news to me, rence. “No news to you?" exclaimed the banker. “How made you the discovery?” ‘ I don’t mind saying that a man employed to fuse me this last blessing—this last favor that I , paintings and poems under the shadow of the We will go to hunt up Jonathan Gump’s murderer saw you rob shall ask at your hands.” : Pitti Palace and the Duomo. | “^ e will not stay an instant, your own bank.” j For answer she gave him her right hand, and | After the usual delay in the baggage room, our j your hotel.” Ah! Poor Jonathan?” cried the banker, with her left gently stroked his pallid, clammy trunks were placed upon the cab, and the port- 1 “Oh, no, Sallie,” returned mamma cheerfully. ... — — i v i ’ ’ " - “ - 1 '' ho is ! “Now that we are here, we will remain. We growing frightfully pale as does the man whose brow ers asked for their buona mono. Mollie, who always purse-bearer took out some money, but ; Mr. Harding arrested her hand, a§d remarked i to the porter’s incorrect English, that they knew verj well that by the railway regulator all fees j were forbidden. Although they did not, of The banker’s face assumed the grayish, clam- he then and there, with proper ceremony, pro- course, understand a word he said, the expres- j my pallor of death, and Mr. Lawrence thought nounced them man and wife. sion of his face was sufficient, and with a vol- J he was surely going before he could unburden Then calling for pen and ink, he quickly > ley of emphatic Italian, they laid violent hands his mind and heart of the remainder of his made out a certificate of their marriage; but upon the baggage, with a view to bearing it off to ! crimes. when the blissful pair turned to bless him, the ; parts unknown. At this point Mollie, in alarm, j But he speedily rallied, and asked in tones spirit of the Mute Banker had returned to the ■ threw at them double the fee they demanded, past has been a career of horrible crimes. “Who do you suppose ktlled him, Mr. Lawrence ?” “I know,” was the placid reply. “Who?” ‘You, Judge Thompson, was the murderer.” “Do you love Mr. Lawrence?” he asked. “ With my entire soul,” was the reply of the blushing but happy girl. “It is sufficient,” was the answer. And being a licensed minister of the gospel, will abide by Baediker.” [Written for The Sunny South.] THE MUTE BANKER; OK, The House of Secrets. BY GEORGE H. POWERS. CHAPTER XVI. At the end of an half hour’s ramble, Mr. Law rence had fully determined upon what course to pursue. The words upon the slip of paper which had fallen at his feet, had been written by his detect ive—the mysteriously missing St. Louis gentle man—and Mr. Lawrence concluded them to mean that with Mabel Vane he was a prisoner in the banking-house. Without pausing to consider more deeply, Mr. Lawrence at once procured a “search warrant,” and with three or four constables proceeded to j terror and torment. hollow and severe: “Are you positive?” “Certainly. I would not dare to charge a man with so grave a crime without positively knowing.” “Tell me, then, how you chance to know that this fearful crime is upon my sin-burdened soul.” “I saw you commit the deed myself.” “ You ?” “ I did. I saw you flash the light into his face, bring the harsh hickory stick upon his de fenseless head, and—well, I know that you threw his body into the river, encumbered with rocks, so that the victim of your crime would remain forever hidden in Rock River.” “And why, may I ask, have you kept my secret so long, and you his half-brother?” “Because/ am Jonathan Gump myself," was Mr. Lawrence’s answer, with a curious smile. “ But understand, Judge Thompson, you are the same criminal you would have been had your hellish purpose been accomplished.” “ Oh, I am so glad !” cried the banker, seizing the hands of restored Jonathan Gump—the hands of Mr. Lawrence—one and the same. “What a burden is lifted from my soul. Since that dark night, life has been to me a ceaseless I have known no peace. God who gave it. (the end.) [For Tbe Suuny South.] OlIR ITALIAN JOURNEY. Charming Italian Cities, Incidents, Etc. DISTINGUISHED LADIES TRAVELING ALONE. BY CECELIA CLEVELAND. “ Good bye to Rome,” I sighed, as I leaned out of the window of my railway compartment, at 7 o’clock on a lovely May morning, and senti mentally stretched out my hands in farewell to “ I wandered with uncertain feet, Far down the long and dim arcade, Where wandered once in rapture sweet, Bologna's gifted maid.’’ How many memories are awakened by the ! name of Bologna ! The home alike of painter and musician. For here lived the beautiful dis ciple of Guido, the “gifted maid,” Elisabetta Serani, and, linking the past with the present, and we drove off ’ 1 we find in folded letters an inscription over the Before reaching our lodgings, Mr. Harding t° f tro ® 0 ? 8 c \ ni ’ * P assed sa ^. ° b b b hours before Raphael s beautiful Sfc. Cecilia, and “ You know that it is entirely unnecassary to 'V lI ?, < ? er i n ° plough the dim old churches, felt a give anything to the cab-men above the legal ^ L° f f °i m f e lr Chl dlsh admiration for the fare ” glories of the first Napoleon, as I knelt m this Remembering the rencontre with the por- j cha P el fining the tomb of Eliza Bonaparte, ters Mollie was somewhat skeptical ; but upon * * * * . . * * alighting, she gave the man what Mr. Harding Adieu to Bologna and St. Cecilia. Verona said was proper, and we fled precipitately into awaits us—Verona, with its stately architecture; the house. Loud exclamations from the in- its frescoed facades, and its grand’Coliseum; its jured cab-man, and vigorous demands for buona j poetic associations and hallowed memories— mano followed our flight, and for at least fifteen hallowed, indeed, to a woman's heart, although minutes he endeavored to storm the fortress by P° litany contains the name of the lovely and means of the door-knocker. Left to ourselves, j ill-starred Juliet. Quaint is the inscription we should have weakly yielded, especially as over her dwelling, and hard to put into equally we were not without'a suspicion that buona mano old-fashioned English. was as in France through custom as much a part “Here is the house ^)f the Capulets, from the vanishing dome of St. Peters. “Will I ever ! of the fare as the legal price, and we women de- i whence went forth La Ginlietta, for whom so again have so perfect a dream of happiness? ” ! ferred to the nobler sex. “Don’t talk to me of dreams or happiness,” j When the cab-man’s physical and vocal returned my sister impatiently ; “Inever before strength was spent, he departed, leaving, I doubt met with such a chapter of accidents as this j not, many imprecations by way of farewell, morning’s experience has proved. No one I * * * * * * many tender hearts have wept, and poets have sung.” Your face has been constantly before me, dream ing or waking, and in all the hours of busy day. would believe they were true if I were to relate them.” “ Suppose that you pour them into my sym pathizing ears,” suggested Sallie from her cor ner. “ I promise to put implicit faith even in the most wildly improbable incidents.” “ Congratulate yourself, Sallie,” said my sister It would, of course, have been impossible for us to have performed the journey from Verona to Venice without an adventure, and the expe rience of that day threatened to become quite thrilling. Any man can imagine with an in- the bank to release the mute’s prisoners, and to give him over to the custody of the law. Judge Thompson freely surrendered himself, j Oh! terribly have I been tormented, and only j vehemently, “ that you did not accept mama’s and by signs instructed his mute housekeeper j for the unremitting toil I have imposed upon invitation to spend the last night with us, that to open the doors to every room of the building ; myself, I should have died. Yet men have we might the more conveniently start together, even to that mysterious apartment of his own, j looked at me and said that the rich Rock Island j In the first place, our friends came last evening where no human beings but Mr. Scott and him- | banker has never had fear or tribulation. But ! to wish us one more good-bye—an attention te mi me u ho 7 yOT \ was savad - ”, i which we could well have dispensed, re- j part with any of the loved cities of dear Italy. The hanker clung to Mr. Lawrence’s hands, ! membering the hour that we were to rise this j Regret is, however, displaced by laughter as even while the latter related his brief story. (morning. ! I recall our triumphant exit from Florence. “ There is but little of it. ion will remember 1 “You know the Roman hour for making calls No grotesque story of Dickens could excel in ab- . that you pushed me into the river near one of ! is about 10 p. si., and at what time the callers ....... particle of evidence to show that wrong had ever J the stone piers that supported the bridge. In ! departed, I fear to tell you ; [in a whisper] it been done in the house, or that man or woman j descending, the cords which bound the rocks to j was 2 o’clock when I put out my bed-room had ever been confined therein. _ : my body struck against the sharp stones which i candle! They then descended to the banking room, protruded from the pier, and they were severed “Then Butler, the painter—good natured i.Etrwent from there to tho rcsd’.ng room and frosS my p^rjSon, rooks and all-/ The touch <y,’ YC.sj -»ipoo Jfcsrjtiqifr ti'nt there ™ ar .MJr be no the private chat apartment. j water restored me to my senses. T swam ashore, j gentlemeninburTartv; insisted npoacoming Jn this last place Jlr. Lawrence hoped to be j founjl the carriage destroyed, a^d the horses tojsee ns nfT, In ,vain did I tell hirpTwe were self had heretofore entered. But all search was useless. From cellar to garret and roof they went, and found no clue to the persons they sought after. Not even the banker’s secret room contained a A month in the old Tuscan capital, visiting j palaces, museums and churches, dreaming over ] the wonderous beauty of the Medicean Venus, ! gazing with a semi-shudder at the grim featurers i wa ™ 8I ? a ?. er number ot bags, of Michael Angelo’s terrible “Fates,” and and umbrellas with which lour women start off kneeling reverentially before the Madonna della "P°“ tb ? lr ‘ ravels ; and poor Percy looked like a Sedia. I had passed hours in Santa Croce mus- beaat . of blmlfln - staggering under the same ; for, ing over the tombs of its hallowed dead, and wlth American gallantry, he insisted upon bear- gathered leaflets near the grave of England’s j ? 11 ?,,® 111 Ught luggage, in addition to his own grandest songstress, Elizabeth Browning. But F a ^ dozen bags and other traps. A certain black now the time had come when we must journey ba S was especially recommended to his atten- northward, and as ever it cost me a pang to tion,M containing a precious littie bag of lemon- able to obtain some clue to the secret of the house. It was his impression that there was dean. name wood from Sorrento, the present repository of the family funds. Once in the cars, Percy unloaded his bur- thened arms and shoulders, and drew a long breath of relief. He had, however, forgotten that we were to change cars during the journey, would perfectly suit every member of a party? I nnd T ben stopped at the ancient seat of Devoted friends are often almost driven to enmity lea r nln S; ? ad ™’ a s . ce ™ of wlld scrambling while travelling together. J ; and confusion trans-pired. The heat war) intense during those June ! ‘ I have counted twelve articles, Mary; is that days, and half of the party wished to start for ,, T ? riea ] 5a1 ,, ’ , . . ’ ' Bologns at G a. ^., butWie desired to spend ! . * ho P e >.'. retnrned mamma; it is enough, surdity the plain facts attending our departure. First of all, could an hour ever be chosen that I then determined o asinme my own , qiuSte acetC: .omed to travel ruler manias wing, ; one morning more at the Pitti to put the finish- ata F even ts. . - , ! e > an “ K° masquerading no longer—to let ( and Vere perfectly! capable of buying/ our own ing touches to her little sketch of her beloved i . ? were to remain half an honrin thestation, some secret door or outlet from the room through : you think Jonathan Gump was outof yourway— * tickets.” / \ Murillo Madonna and with a siuh we consented wa iting for the next train. Mamma sat in state, which the banker had carried his victims, for knowing that my face would keep you in con- “Nonsense," he said, in his kindly, off-hand to wait for the midday train b surrounded by a pyramid of light luggage, look- here they had last been seen. stant remembrance of your crime, and haunt manner ; “women are always taken in by these Our trunks were carded and we sat over the in <? ma J eshc as the Representative American But pressing upon the walls and floor, and you with dreams more terrible than hell. There thieving vagabonds of porters and cab-men, and late continental breakfast waiting for Sallie ^ oma n, or the Goddess of Liberty, or some careful search, revealed no hidden spring. In was but one man who knew that Jonathan : I’m not the fellow to stand calmly bv and see a The minutes passed and it was time for us to : creatur e of the sort. fact, the whole house had the honest and unsus- Gump and Mr. Lawrence were one and the ! country-woman swindled. The* oid Granite start. Sallie had not arrived; and worse still, “ Tbe tram de P arts for Venice!” cried the same—Dr. Strong, whom I knew would not be- State would blush for her boy if he did. ” i had not breakfasted. Mamma,’ despairing, said’: g uard - tray my secret. _ _ “And I will accompany you, amico, and see ; “We must leave without her,” when a thun- Each one grasped all she could carry, and we “But was not a body found in the river at the last of the signoras,” said the sentimental dering knock was heard at the door, and Sallie ™, R , hed towards the cars. The train was very the time they were dragging lor you?” inquired Don Romolo, with a sigh ; and assuring us that entered, breathless- ful1 ’ and we had some difficulty in finding a the astonished banker. they would be on time, they left us. <*I cannot wait for breakfast ” she said’ “ we 1 compartment that would accommodate all of our “ Even so. But whose it was I do not know. “ Do pause for an instant, Mollie,” said mama should have started long a“0.’” ’ I P art y- At } ft st we and our hags were deposited The good people of Camden helped me by pro- in a feeble voice, “and at least put in a comma.” ; She hastily poured out a°cup of coffee; but, ! a, cry of despair rent the heavens, nouncing it mine.” Mollie shot an annihilating glance across the a i as i it was at boiling point, and with a cry, she picious appearance of any residence or business house, whose proprietor is of the right righteous. The constables laughed, and Mr. Lawrence felt irritated. He believed that he was on the right track, but that for the present the hanker had the start of him. That Mabel and his detective had been" pris oners in the building, he did not for one mo ment doubt. If this was not so, what meant the note that had fluttered from the upper stories of the bank building, and which had fallen almost into his hands while passing. “ Surely he cannot have bribed the old hag to throw the note at my feet? It cannot be that there is any recess or apartment in this house which we have failed to discover?” And to make sure, Mr. Lawrence took the “ M ell, I am glad that it is no worse; and if ; railway carriage, and continued—warming up at repentance will secure forgiveness, I am already I the recollection of her trials : forgiven. And now I must hasten to make such j “On time? I should say so ! At five o’clock reparation as yet lies within my power. I am J Butler arrived, and almost pulled down the bell- rich, Mr. Lawrence. It is true, when I robbed ! rope, as is his wont.” my bank I was embarrassed, and I did it to save ! “ ‘Tell the ladies,’ he cried jovially, in correct myself from ruin, and because I hated and j English to our little Italian hand-maiden, ‘that leared you. Now let me tell you briefly what I I have come to lock their trunks for them.’ desire done. I must restore every unlawful | “ And before I could recover from this alarm, mute housekeeper aside and questioned her farthing that I possess, with compound interest Don Romolo arrived. In three minutes I cleverly by means of slate and pencil, but gained from the date of robbery. In the first place, no information. If the woman was able to di vulge any of her master’s secrets, if any he bad, she would not, and emphatically denied all knowledge of the note. In this last particular Mr. Lawrence believed her fully. And truth to say, when he told her of the note, her face assumed a white and fright ened look, which was not at all in keeping with her previous demeanor. Sorely^perplexed, Mr. Lawrence ordered the banker’s release, and dismissed the constables. When the latter had departed, he said to the banker as follows : here is a check for yours. The remainder of the plunder I shall restore by will, making you ex ecutor. And now if yon will send for a lawyer, I will soon be prepared to die. The balance of my estate after paying off these claims, shall go to Mabel. It will be a fortune to ber of nearly a balf million dollars.” While Mr. Lawrence was seeking an attorney, tbe banker had dispatched a servant to tbe proper officer for a marriage license. The lawyer came at once, and the will was made as he had said that it should he. f .. , , , | By this time the servant had returned with nnt fath S M me ’ bnt *l a ? e the license; and then the banker in a low whis- hpfivpn vnn in™ f K»i r^ er f 8 d . m per called for his housekeeper, and directed her k of Mabel Vanes whereabouts, to bring “the prisoners forward.” lo wl, nT 811 T Sb Louls - J ] et y™ “ She is like her master-the deaf and dumb arlin n ^ he \ are ’ 1 T coald part of her is all assumed,” thought Mr. Law- ar f ested . on a ?° tber , charge. Jadge rence . Thea turning to the banker, he asked: Thompson, for a crime which only_ a dark night, \ .. where have you kept them ?” dressed, and had commenced a conflict with mama’s chignon, but poor, dreamy Cecelia was saying farewell to her flower garden on the log gia, quite forgetful that young girls travel in two boots. replaced it on the table. “Are these eggs bard, Cecilia?” she said, placing a couple in ber elegant travelling bag, a souvenir of ber visit to St. Petersburg. With out waiting for an answer, she packed in some other fragments of a lunch, including a bottle of. Bass, the cork of which she insisted upon loosening. We then descended to our carriage. Despair seized us; only a two-place open cab awaited our party of five. Not another was to be had upon the stand, and it was too late to go further to look for one. After an inward struggle, Sal lie heroically mounted the box beside the driv er. Mollie and I being slender and small, “Our bill had been paid and receipted the j crowded into the seat beside mamma, while night before, and we had ordered only three i Percy, the gifted but eccentric “ poet-boy,” potions of chocolate for the morning ; for- j with his load of tourist luggage—field-glass, innately, however, the pensive Don Romolo had : three bags, knapsack, drinking-gourd, etc.— not yet said his mass, and therefore could eat strapped upon his back, walked dreamily after nothing, and dear, good Butler is never hungry the hand-cart laden with trunks. Our tempers, at inconvenient times. But I was so fluttered i alread}’ ruffied by the heat and delay, were not and excited by the untimely arrival of our improved by this annoying circumstance, and friends that Host my keys, forgot the lunch that ! p 00r Sallie had the mortification of passing a I had carefully put up—so that we will probably handsome Italian, whose easel had been beside starve before we reach a station with a buffet— left Cecelia’s inseparable companion, a box of chocolate bon-bons, and, worst of all, a dear lit tle plant that I had brought from the Coliseum the night of our last delightful moonlight visit, and which I had been tenderly nurturing in a hers fora week in the Pitti, and who had bestow ed many compliments upon her talent. Now, however, he stared blankly at her in her ele vated seat, evidently thinking he had been flirting with a truant lady’s maid. God and one other witness'd hnt't-h* a*-* \ »o««j«vojuu*epi uiuui i ™ .u™ i ^ rau iniur«j uui,u.ui B i U » j We reached the station. “Ten minutes venoina that has not net A 7 f , , In m i 7 own private room, to which no one bottle. Then Butler, with a lavish of American late j” exclamed mamma, looking at the railway “What!! !” * come. had access, and which is so situated in the generosity, paid the cabman double fares and a : c i 0c k. Tf aV-rv fmm fV,a a i t bui to>Bg that they could alarm no one on the large buona mano (out of mama’s purse), and 4 . 0 ’h, no, signora,’’said the porter, cheerfully, less liDS—iust one word ,2 twt ^ sU ’ eet : When you eame this afte rnoon they distributed liberal fees, at our expense, among io anBW er to our question about tbe Bologna have been wJung fromlrimbv 11 1 we , r , e m f he apartment fronting tbe street, which . the railway porters. tram. "It does nocleave for an hour and three * i i v m lm some terrible . will explain how your detective’s note chanced I “The next contretemps w'as the loss of our ear, an en is lips were as silent and mo- to fall into your hand. But after you left, and passport. Pockets and bags were ransacked, v S as Detore. ^ while you were gone for your constables, I had ; but no passport appeared. What was to he .a f v.'* . ar D W "° n j* 1 ,?. wr °to; “it was them removed to a secret underground passage done? You know no one can leave the pon- in my cellar. My housekeeper has now gone to tifical dominions without a passport, and our this place to bring them before us.” j train was to depart in fifteen minutes. In this quarters.” “True!” said Sallie, dropping her parcels and hag. “ I forgot to tell you that I learned yester day that the hour was changed.” This was the crowning catastrophe—all the hurry and anxiety, and now nearly two hours to “ Weare ruined; the bag containing the money ! is not here.” j At that instant, the whistle sounded for the j train to start. Mamma darted from the compartment, and j rushing to the guard, shrieked in emphatic Eng- ; lish: i “This train must not start; I have lost all of my money.” The guard looked bewildered, but up on hear ing Percy’s explanation, he ordered a delay of a few’ moments, and assisted us in the search. To add to our trouble, the train on which we had come from Verona was also on the point of start ing, and had to be detained. We looked through the station and through every compartment, and were about coming to the conclusion that the bag had been left in Verona, when Mollie put her hand under a seat that the guard had already searched, and drew forth in trinmph the missing bag. Mamma did not allow it to leave her hands nntil we had reached the hotel in Venice. She then unlocked it to assure herself of the safety of her money, when to her alarm no lemon- wood bag was visible. Mamma fell gasping into the nearest chair, and we all assumed tragic attitudes, for the missing bag contained all of our money with the exception of a litile silver and copper. Visions of living upon the bounty of the American Consul, or being returned to our native country as paupers, at the expense of the government, floated despairingly before us, when the silence was finally broken by a hys terical peal of laughter from Mollie. “I put the money bag, mamma, into the white hag this morning, and then forgot all about it. No one has taken special care of the bag, and therefore I presume it is safe. Here is th6 money!” ^ the other—it was Walter Scott. Mr. Lawrence made no reply, but he gave the banker one piercing glance, which seemed to “ But how did you manage to capture them ?”[ delemma, Butler rushed to the chief official wa /‘t ?! blm llke dellcat f Plant in queried Mr. Lawrence. among the police in the station, related the eac jj re tired to different corners of the broker*sat down ier mwe“frie^Thnn “ 1 ubloroformed them - andtook tbem through circumstances, and embellishing them with the : wai ting-room, and sulked, b fore U U0Wn P aler ana more Bieiess tnnn a secret trap-door in the private chat-room to the unblushing statement that mama was the wite After some moments Sallie decided philosoph- This" brief ennvprsnHnn Bail been nrivntp , cellar below. And now while revealing so much, j of the American Ambassador to Bagdad, Ibelieve, ically that she might as well have some break- s Dnet conver.ation Bad been private, it j may tell you that it is no wonder that my or some equally distant point; he dropped a f ast an d accordinriv ouened her bag. A shrill at ita Conclusion as tost*“deacribed^Mr bu )} din g is termed ‘ The House of Secrets.' Its Napoleon carelessly in his hand, and begged cry ’ was immediately heard, and a° despairing ana at its conclusion, as just described, ilr. walls are so constructed that every sound ut- permission for us to leave Rome. The innocent exclamation of “ Mary, come here!” As re he e n«ssed™t he aeve notice that the in tbe P ri . vate chat-room was clearly audi- official accepted all of Butler’s story as truth, p 00 , tallies sandwiches were floating in a sea h ft n tert-«, P ill b 8 notice tnat the tie to my ears in the apartment that I always | and telegraphed on to the frontiers to allow this of pale ale and b ro ken eggs—her elegant bag ua ner w as very in. occupied, and which I allowed no one to enter.” : illustrious -Ecerifojza and her daughters to pass. - -* ’ - • ornnmer. “ You surprise me,” exclaimed Mr. Lawrence. “Here we are now in peace and safety, and I CHAPTER XVII. “But I desire to know how ' Here at Venice, I will leave my Italian journey. No unskilled hand should try to describe that fairy city, that dream of past glory and fallen grandeur. The good boy was sitting on the front steps whittling up his sister’s embroidery frames and muttering to himself: “This ain’t no good world to live in, unless a fellow is his father’s and mother's only orphan boy. What makes m e get so mad is to have my sister go and take all my peaches to that big loafer of a sweetheart of hers that comes round here seven nights in a week to get a square meal, and make out as if he want ed to talk politics with the old man. followed the messenger to the banker’s abode. NS hen he entered the room where the dying man lay, the servants and friends who were present withdrew, and the two were alone to gether. The banker motioned Mr. Lawrence to ap proach his bed, and said in clear, distinct tones: “ I am dying, sir.” Between Florence and Bologne, the oppressive heat dissolved at last into a grand tornado. “ Tile thunder pealg, the lightnings glare,” and the echoes from the wooded Appenines were tremendous. We forgot all our annoyances threw the remnants of the frames into the street, and seemed lighter hearted. irretrievably ruined. Sorry though we felt for you secured my 1 hope never again to have so trying a morning, lltst’ co^refmL^bu^t^thri *day, Sallie*can see f, d talk P ollt l cs ^ ltb the ” ld ,™ an ' £ ' vl ? h And so it proved to be detective’s signature to the check with which I shall beware, in future, of having anything to no joke in the tra K edy of the Russia leather bag. be lhe banker was very ill, and about midnight you were enabled to appropriate his money. do with gentlemen when traveling. We never a messenger came to the hotel where Mr. Law- “ It is easily explained. Through the influ- i had any trouble before, and are perfectly compe- rence was stopping, and said: ence of drugs he was a creature of my will, tent to take care of ourselves. I am so warm "Judge Thompson is dying, and must see i Not only did he give me a check for his money, and exhausted that I must take off my jacket.... you directly. He bids you come in the name of j but he let me into your secrets so far as he knew Mercy on us !” she ejaculated. God, Mabel Vane and Jonathan Gump.” I them.” “What is the matter, child?” said mama, Mr. Lawrence hastily dressed himself, and! “And about the other missing man ?” asked turning white with alarm. “ Are we running off Mr. Lawrence. the track ? ” “A mistake. He never deposited money with “ Here, mama,” said Mollie tragically, “is the me, and I know nothing of him.” j missing passport safely pinned inside of my “One more question?’’ urged Mr. Lawrence, j jacket!” “Why does Mr. Scott bear me such hatred?” Tableau. “ He knew you only as Jonathan Gump. In * * * * * * that character yon unconsciously won the affec- ; Eleven hours ride over a beautiful country, tions of a young lady whom he loved.” j made picturesque by luxuriant olive groves and A little girl in Sunday-school was asked by a teacher: “ Mary, do yon say your prayers morning and night?” “No, Miss, I don’t.” “Why, Mary, are you not afraid to go to sleep while watching the grand conflict between the jn the dark without asking God to take care of heavens and earth. you and watch over you until the morning?” As the night approached, we commenced to 1 "No, Miss, I ain’t afraid, ’cause I sleep in the consult over hotels. None of onr party had ; middle.” ever been in Bologna, and we therefore appealed to our guide-books, Unluckily, Sallie travels wit Baediker, whereas, we cling to old Murray, so the rival volumes were at once produced. Music in the best sense does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accus tomed to it, the greater the effect. y~v /