part of this, after
all?" brightly asked Malcom, the following day, as Mr. Sumner entered
the wide sunny room where he was lying on the sofa, propped up by
cushions, while Barbara, Bettina, and Margery were clustered about him
with their hands full of photographs of Fra Angelico's paintings, and
all trying to talk at once. "The girls have told me everything; and I am
almost sure I shall never mistake a Fra Angelico picture. I know just
what expression he put into his faces, just how quiet and
as-if-they-never-could-be-used his hands are, and how straight the folds
of his draperies hang, even though the people who wear them are dancing.
I know what funny little clouds, like bundles of cigars, his Madonnas
sit upon up in the heavens.

"I am not quite sure, uncle dear, but I like your instructions best when
second-hand," he laughingly added. "Betty has made me fairly love the
old fellow by her stories of his unearthly goodness. Was it not fine to
refuse money for his work, and to decline to be made archbishop when the
Pope asked him; and to recommend a brother monk for the office? I think
he ought to be called _Saint_ Angelico."

[Illustration: FRA ANGELICO. UFFUZI GALLERY, FLORENCE.

GROUP OF ANGELS. FROM CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.]

"Some people have called him the 'St. John of Art,'" Mr. Sumner
replied, with a bright smile at Malcom's enthusiasm. "I am not sure but
yours is the better name, however."

About this time people who frequented the Cascine Gardens and other
popular drives in and about Florence began to notice with interest an
elegant equipage containing a tall, slender, pale young man, two
beautiful, brown-eyed girls, and oftentimes either a gray-haired woman
in black or a sunny-haired young girl. It had been purchased by Howard,
and daily he wished Barbara and Bettina to drive with him. Indeed, it
now seemed as if the young man's thoughts were beginning to centre
wholly in this household; and suddenly warned by a few words spoken by
Malcom, Mrs. Douglas became painfully conscious that a more than mere
friendly interest might prompt such constant and lavish attentions. With
newly opened eyes, she saw that while Howard generously gave to them all
of such things as he could in return for their hospitality, yet there
was a something different in his manner toward Barbara and Bettina.
Their room was always bright and fragrant with the most costly flowers,
and not a wish did they express but Howard was eager t