THE BOARDING-HOUSE ON THE MERGELLINA The year was 1878.

A tourist searching his Baedeker for a genteel but not oppressively aristocratic _pension_ in the open parts of Naples would have found himself directed by an asterisk to the establishment kept by Mrs.Gluck on the Mergellina;--frequented by English and Germans, and very comfortable.

The recommendation was a just one.

Mrs.
Gluck enjoyed the advantage of having lived as many years in England as she had in Germany; her predilections leaned, if anything, to the English side, and the arrival of a "nice" English family always put her in excellent spirits.

She then exhibited herself as an Anglicized matron, perfectly familiar with all the requirements, great and little, of her guests, and, when minutiae were once settled, capable of meeting ladies and gentlemen on terms of equality in her drawing-room or at her table, where she always presided.