CHAPTER XXVI.
The answers to Ovid's questions were not to be found in Carmina's reply.
She had reasons for not mentioning the conversazione; and she shrank from writing to him of his mother.

Her true position in Mrs.Gallilee's house--growing, day by day, harder and harder to endure; threatening, more and more plainly, complications and perils to come--was revealed in her next letter to her old friend in Italy.

She wrote to Teresa in these words: "If you love me, forget the inhuman manner in which I have spoken of Miss Minerva! "After I had written to you, I would have recalled my letter, if it could have been done.

I began, that evening, to feel ashamed of what I had said in my anger.

As the hours went on, and bedtime approached, I became so wretched that I ran the risk of another harsh reception, by intruding on her once more.