g to go there; you dread spoiling the vision by a less
fair reality, and you go away, leaving it unvisited, but carrying with
you the remembrance of its shining and its feathery palms."

"Is it palmy?" asked Janet.

"There are probably now more palms at Bordighera than in the Holy Land
itself," said Verney, who had wound himself into a place beside her. I
say "wound," because Verney was so long and lithe that he could slip
gracefully into places which other men could not obtain. Lloyd was not
with us. He had not left his post of duty beside the phaeton, which was
coming slowly up the hill behind us; but I noticed that he had selected
Margaret's side of it.

"Palms would grow at Mentone, or at any other sheltered spot on this
coast," said the Professor, at last abandoning the obstinate quotation,
and coming back to the present. "But the cultivation is not remunerative
save at Bordighera, where they own the monopoly of supplying the palm
branches used on Palm-Sunday at Rome."

"Excuse me," said Inness; "but I think you did not mention the origin of
that monopoly?"

"A monkish legend," said the Professor, contemptuously.

"In those days everything was monkish," replied Inness; "architecture,
knowledge, and religion. If we had lived then, no doubt we should all
have been monks."

"Ah, yes!" said Miss Elaine, fervently. "Do tell us the legend, Mr.
Inness. I adore legends, especially if ecclesiastical."

"Well," said Inness, "a good while ago--in 1586--the Pope decided to
raise and place upon a pedestal an Egyptian obelisk, which, transported
to Rome by Caligula, had been left lying neglected upon the ground. An
apparatus was constructed to lift the huge block, and with the aid of
one hundred and fifty horses and nine hundred men it was raised, poised,
and then let down slowly towards its position, amid the breathless
silence of a multitude, when suddenly it was seen that the ropes on one
side failed to bring it into place. All, including the engineer in
charge, stood stupefied with alarm, when a voice from the crowd called
out, 'Wet the ropes!' It was done; the ropes shortened; the obelisk
reached its place in safety. The Pope sent for the man whose timely
advice had saved the lives of many, and asked him what reward would
please him most. He was a simple countryman, and with much timidity he
answered that he lived at Bordighera, and that if the palms of
Bordighera could be used in Rome on Holy Palm-Sunday he should