nt smile played about her
lips.

As it was time to go to the dining room for refreshments, Mrs. Douglas,
in accordance with a preconceived plan, asked her brother to lead the
way with Miss Sherman. When Barbara entered the room soon after with
Howard, she saw the two sitting behind the partial screen of a big palm.
She felt a momentary wish that she could know what they were so
earnestly talking about, and, presently, was conscious that Mr.
Sumner's eyes sought her.

But how little she thought that she, herself, was the subject of their
conversation, or rather of Miss Sherman's, who was saying how apparent
the devotion of Mr. Sinclair was to every one, and that surely Barbara
must reciprocate his feeling, else she would withdraw from him; and how
pleasant it was to see such young people, just in the beginning of life,
becoming so interested in each other; and how romantic to thus find each
other in such a city as Florence; and what an advantage to become allied
with such an old, wealthy family as the Sinclairs, and so on and on.

Chapter X.

The Mystery Unfolds to Howard.

_We are in God's hand.
How strange now looks the life He makes us lead:
So free we seem, so fettered fast we are!
I feel He laid the fetter: let it lie!_

--BROWNING.

[Illustration: SAN MINIATO AL MONTE, FLORENCE.]

The weeks sped rapidly on; midwinter had come and gone, and four months
had been numbered since Mrs. Douglas had brought Malcom, Margery,
Barbara, and Bettina to Italy.

Although social pleasures and duties had multiplied, yet study had never
been given up. A steady advance had been made in knowledge of the
history of Florence, and of her many legends and traditions. They had
not forgotten or passed by the sculptured treasures of the city, but had
learned something of Donatello, her first great sculptor; of Lorenzo
Ghiberti, who wrought those exquisite gates of bronze for Dante's "Il
mio bel San Giovanni" that Michael Angelo declared to be fit for the
gates of Paradise; and of Brunelleschi, the architect of her great
Duomo.

Through all had gone on their study of the Florentine painters. After
much patient work given to pictures of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, they were now quite revelling in the beauty of those of the
sixteenth century, or the High Renaissance. This was all the more
interesting since they had seen how one after another the early
difficulties had been over