84 Lucia, the Organ-Maiden.

quite old, gave up the business and sold the organ
to a man named Pietro Nolli, who took it to
America. For ten days poor Lucia was put ina
dark, dark place on the big steamer, where she
heard the most awful roaring noises, and was
tossed up and down, from side to side, till she
really longed to die. She thought of Paolo and
wondered if he had died, and if not, whether she
would ever see him again. It comforted her some-
what to remember that he had said he would try
and find her and buy her back again.

At last she reached America, and then fol-
lowed a year of wretched life to the poor dancer.
Nothing was done for her. The machinery was
broken and not mended. The organ was sadly
out of tune, but Pietro neither noticed nor cared.
The dust collected in the little drawing-room.
The window grew cloudy, but for that Lucia was
glad, for she was ashamed of the dirty room, and
also, alas, of her dancing. She was older, and had
rheumatism, for she was not used to the colder
climate of America, and so she danced in quite a
stiff jerky way, that would have been funny if it