on by the old Italian gentleman. There were many splendid statues and pictures, and these were courteously shown and described to Violet; and plans were made for her to be taken to see as many of the grand churches and other sights of Rome as could be seen in the few remaining days of their stay there.

So few were those days now, that Violet more than once expressed a hope that in a few years' time she might return to Rome and spend some months there. Just before they left for Paris, a letter reached Mr. Mordaunt from the Vicar of Cray, and it caused Violet renewed disappointment. He regretted that he did not know Mr. Clayton's address, and said that one had been left with the person who took charge of the Vicarage until his arrival in England, but she had unwittingly destroyed it-hence Violet's returned letter to Jessie.

'It seems so strange that she does not write!" exclaimed Violet. "If a letter comes here after we are gone, shall I ever get it?"

Certainly, dear," said Miss Mordaunt kindly; "all our letters will be forwarded to Paris."

The excitement of more travelling and new

sights occupied the young countess during the remainder of her foreign visit; and no news reached her of her young friend Jessie, for reasons which we will explain presently.

CHAPTER XII.

HARD indeed was the work Mr. Clayton had undertaken-neglected and dispiriting the neighbourhood in which he laboured. The street in which they lodged was very poor and dull, but it was princely compared with the dens of poverty and misery which it was the curate's duty to visit. Rough welcome he received, too, in many places; although the self-sacrificing devotion with which he sought to bring blessing and comfort to many houses where much sickness was raging softened some towards him. The lodging-house where Mrs. Clayton and the children lived seemed very bare and desolate to them after fresh country dwellings; but when Mr. Clayton sometimes recounted the scenes of misery he had witnessed during the day, the little squalid children he had seen picking up dirty scraps of food in the streets, and the noisy unrest of their most

unhomelike homes, the mother thanked God that her dear ones were so blessed as they

were.

Hard times, though, came to them. When the weekly lodging bill was paid, and the exorbitant charges for coals, there was little indeed left for the table or clothes of the family. For the first time in his life Eddie's busy little feet were bootless, and the winter days were sadly dull to the little fellow thus deprived of even his walk on London pavements. Milly pondered on this grievance, and wanted to lend her boots to the prisoner; but Jessie said they were much too big. Patiently Mrs. Clayton strove to manage everything so as to save anxiety to the husband and father who worked so hard and suffered so keenly for his family ; but it was a sorrowful thing when lack of nourishment once more laid the mother on a sickbed.

Now indeed Mr. Clayton felt his burden heavy, and Jessie's young life was crowded with anxious cares. The necessary remedies were purchased, and when the weekly lodging bill was presented there was almost no money to pay it. Hard and unfeeling

was Mrs. Porter, the landlady-loud in her determination to have her money or her

rooms.

"Papa," said Jessie in a low voice, not to reach her mother's ears, "what can we do to keep Mrs. Porter from worrying mamma?

My child, I will do my best," replied her father, a world of misery in his face. "Perhaps it will be made easier for me soon. Hope for the best. What troubles me most is the thought that you must be alone here so many hours," and with a weary sigh he went to his daily labour.

A dish of plain boiled rice was all that graced the table at one o'clock. Eddie, rendered fretful by his forced imprisonment, grumbled a little; but Jessie said it was all that could be managed that day, and Milly whispered something which made Eddie's face brighten up, but which his elder sister knew nothing about.

In the afternoon the two little ones went upstairs to keep the place quiet; and Jessie was busy with her mother until about halfpast three. Then she wondered what kept the others so quietly busy, and went up to see. She found Milly alone, her face flattened against