ring the night busy Leghorn on the coast, and Pisa, and
Florence up the Arno, were left behind. Leo was proud of sunny and
artistic Italy and he much desired that Lucille should see at Pisa the
famous white marble leaning tower, with its beautiful spiral colonnades;
its noble cathedral and baptistry, the latter famous for its wonderful
echo, and the celebrated cemetery made of earth brought from the Holy
Land. At Florence she should see the stupendous Duomo, with the
Brunelleschi dome that excited the emulation of Michael Angelo; the
bronze gates of Ghiberti, "worthy to be the gates of paradise," and the
choice collections of art in the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi Gallery
connected by Porte Vecchio. But Leo contented himself with the thought
that when the yacht episode was over, and Harry Hall had passed out of
sight, he could then take Lucille over Italy to enjoy a thousand-and-one
works of art, including masterpieces by such artists as Michael Angelo,
Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Guido, and others.

Lucille had studied art in Boston, and she was fond of Leo because he
passionately loved art and could assist her. She began to comprehend what
Aristotle meant when he defined art as "the reason of the thing, without
the matter," or Emerson, "the conscious utterance of thought, by speech,
or action, to any end."

CHAPTER XXI

TWO UNANSWERED LETTERS

During the night the yacht "Hallena" had steamed down through the Channel
Piombino, and the Tuscan Archipelago, studded with islands, and had
passed Rome, the Eternal City.

"Naples cannot be far off," thought Leo, for to the southeast is seen the
smoking torch of Mt. Vesuvius, southwest is the island of Ischia with its
extinct volcano, and beyond is Cape Miseno. The "Hallena" cautiously felt
her way among the luxuriant islands that guard the broad and beautiful
Bay of Naples and the Siren City. Her passengers had ample opportunity
to study the attractions of this justly celebrated locality.

Vesuvius, reflected in the smooth waters of the bay, lifts high her peak,
the ascending smoke coloring the white clouds above. At her feet lies
ancient Hurculaneum, submerged on the 24th of August, A.D. 79, by a flood
of molten lava.

Nearer the bay and only five miles from the volcano, is ancient Pompeii,
which was overwhelmed by the same eruption of Vesuvius. Pompeii was
buried, not with lava, but with tufa, ashes and scoriae, and since 1755
has thus been the more easily a