`Thank Heaven! Here is the doctor now,' cried Mrs Ashe.

The doctor had, in fact, been standing in the doorway for several moments before they noticed him, and had overheard part of the colloquy with Madame Frulini. With him was someone else, at the sight of whom Mrs Ashe gave a great sob of relief. It was her brother at last.

When Italian meets Italian then comes the tug of expletive. It did not seem to take one second for Dr Hilary to whirl the padrona out into the entry, where they could be heard going at each other like two furious cats. Kiss, roll, sputter, recrimination, objurgation! In five minutes Madame Frulini was, metaphorically speaking, on her knees, and the doctor standing over her with drawn sword, making her take back every word she had said and every threat she had uttered.

`Prestige of thy miserable hotel!' he thundered, `where will that be when I go and tell the English and Americans - all of whom I know, every one! - how thou hast served a countrywoman of theirs in thy house! Dost thou think thy prestige will help thee much when Dr Hilary has fixed a black mark on thy door? I tell thee no; not a stranger shalt thou have next year to eat so much as a plate of macaroni under thy base roof! I will advertise thy behaviour in all the foreign papers - in Figaro, in Galignani, in the Swiss Times, and the English one which is read by all the nobility, and the Heraldo of New York, which all Americans peruse--'

`Oh, doctor - pardon me - I regret what I said - I am afflicted - !'

`Ik will post thee in the railway stations,' continued the doctor implacably. `I will bid my patients to write letters to all their friends, warning them against thy flea-ridden Del Mondo. I will apprise the steamboat companies at Genoa and Naples. Thou shalt see what comes of it - truly, thou shalt see.'

Having thus reduced Madame Frulini to powder, the doctor now condescended to take breath and listen to her appeals for mercy, and presently he brought her in with her mouth full of protestations and apologies, and assurances that the ladies had mistaken her meaning; she had only spoken for the good of all; nothing was further from her intention than that they should be disturbed or offended in any way, and she and all her household were at the service of `the little sick angel of God'. After which the doctor dismissed her with an air of contemptuous tolerance, and laid his hand on the door of Amy's room. Behold, it was locked!

`Oh, I forgot!' cried Katy laughing, and she pulled the key out of her pocket.

`You are a hee-roine, mademoiselle,' said Dr Hilary. `I watched you as you faced that tigress, and your eyes were like a swordsman's as he regards his enemy's rapier.'

`Oh, she was so brave, and such a help!' said Mrs Ashe, kissing her impulsively. `You can't think how she has stood by me all through, Ned, or what a comfort she has been.'

`Yes, I can,' said Ned Worthington, with a warm, grateful look at Katy. `I can believe anything good of Miss Carr.'

`But where have you been all this time?' said Katy, who felt this flood of compliment to be embarrassing. `We have so wondered at not hearing from you.

`I have been off on a ten-days' leave to Corsica for moufflon-shooting, replied Mr Worthington. `I only got Polly's telegrams and letters the day before yesterday, and I came away as soon as I could get my leave extended. It was a most unlucky absence. I shall always regret it.'

`Oh, it is all right now that you have come!' his sister said, leaning her head on his arm with a look of relief and rest which was good to see. `Everything will go better now, I am sure.'

`Katy Carr has behaved like a perfect angel,' she told her brother when they were alone.