nd on, to readjust
harness, to investigate the brake, or to offer alms from the lady in the
carriage to the old man breaking stones in the roadside dust.

They were off; they sped through the gate of the Holy Cross, the fresh
young horses making excellent time. Out of the city, along the river,
across it, past hamlets, past villas, past churches and
_camposanti_, past vineyards and _poderi_ and peasants'
dwellings....

It seemed to Aurora that never had there been such a day, so fresh and
unstained and perfect, a day inspiring such gladness in being. The sense
of that priceless boon, the freedom of a whole long day together, elated
her with a joy that knew only one shadow, and that unremarked for the
first half of it--the shortness of the longest earthly day.

Now the horses slowed in their pace; the ascent had begun among the
shady chestnut-trees. The driver's friend scrambled down and plodded
alongside the horses; the driver himself descended and walked, cheering
on his beasts with noises that nearly killed Aurora, she declared.

As it took them between four and five hours to reach their destination,
and as Aurora chattered all the time, with little intervals of talk by
Gerald, to report their conversation is unfeasible. Aurora, wanting in
all that varied knowledge which those who are fond of reading get from
books, had yet a lot to say that some unprejudiced ears found worth
while. The dwellers upon earth and their ways had for her an immense and
piercing interest. In vain had circumstances circumscribed her early
life: neighbors, Sunday-school teacher, minister, village drunkard,
fourth of July orator, had furnished comedy for her every day. The human
happenings falling within her ken became good stories in their passage
through a mind quick in its perception of inconsequence, faulty logic,
pretense, all that constitutes the funny side of things. Aurora's love
of the funny story amounted to a fault. Aurora was not always above
promoting laughter by narratives no subtler than a poke in your ribs.
Aurora, in the vein of funny stories, could upon occasion be
Falstaffian. But only one half of humanity had a chance to find out the
latter. When in company of the other sex, by instinct and upbringing
alike she minded her Ps and Qs.

Gerald said that Aurora on that day regaled him with over a thousand
comic anecdotes, this being the expression of her frolicsome and
exuberant mood. He furnished her with a few to add to