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Rh lamentation. This was the more painful to the daughter, from her feeling that these trifles were all the pleasures her parent was capable of enjoying. The first great disorder of the house somewhat reduced, Beatrice devoted every leisure moment to her embroidery; and was well repaid for her trouble by the scream of delight with which her mother saw her chair covered with silk worked with the brightest coloured flowers. One improvement succeeded another: the floor, was spread with matting—the vine, sacrificing its fruit to its leaves, served for a curtain—the walls were adorned with some of her drawings—her mother's flower-garden was restored—and many months of comparative comfort elapsed. The work she had begun for her mother, by its continuance became also a source of revenue. Pedro improved as a salesman; and divers ornamental additions made Donna Margaretta very happy.

Still, the uncertainty of her father's fate kept Beatrice in a state of anxious wretchedness. One morning she had wandered farther into the wood than was now her wont—for she had but little time by day for solitary reflection—when she was startled by a figure cautiously