So for Europe we started, and after many years of travel about the Continent we settled down in the Pension Donizetti in Florence.

There Lydia was admired for her beauty and wit, and courted for her money! But save for my ten pounds a week, which we eked out in the most frugal manner, we had not a penny between us.
"It was in Florence that we met with Vrain and his daughter, who came to stay at the Pension.

He was a quiet, harmless old gentleman, a trifle weak in the head, which his daughter said came from over-study, but which I discovered afterwards was due to habitual indulgence in morphia and other drugs.

His daughter watched him closely, and--not having a will of his own by reason of his weak brain--he submitted passively to her guidance.

I heard by a side wind that Vrain was rich, and had a splendid mansion in the country; so I hinted to Lydia that as it seemed difficult to get her a young husband, it would be better for her to marry a rich old one.