instantaneous and supreme. In a sudden irrepressible tide, her grief,
her uncertainty of the future, her home-sickness inundated her soul.
With a quick gesture she flung away both pride and restraint; and,
hiding her face against the dog's rough coat, cried as if she had been
a child.

PART III

CHAPTER I

It was nine o'clock on a morning four years after the wedding at
Carrigmore; the season was late spring; the scene was Italy; and
Florence--the city of tranquillity made manifest--lay at rest under its
coverlet of sun and roses. In the soft, early light, the massed
buildings of the town seemed to blend together until, to the dazzled
eyes, the Arno looked a mere ribbon of silver as it wound under its
bridges; and the splendid proportions of the Duomo became lost in the
blue haze that presaged the hot day to come.

The scene was vaguely beautiful, viewed from any of the hills that
guard the city; but from no point was its soft picturesqueness more
remarkable than from the terraces and windows of a villa that nestled
in a curve of the narrow, winding road between San Domenico and
Fiesole. This villa, unlike its neighbours, was long and low in
structure; and in addition to the stone urns, luxurious flowering
plants, and wide, painted jalousies common to Italian houses, it
boasted other and more individual attractions--to be found in a flight
of singularly old marble steps that led from one level of its garden to
another; and in the unusual magnificence of the cypresses that grew in
an imposing semi-circle upon the upper terrace.

It was under the shade of these sombre trees that a breakfast table
stood, awaiting occupation, on this particular morning at the hour of
nine. The table in itself formed a picture, for in the warm shafts of
sun that slipped between the cypress trees, silver and glass gleamed
invitingly, while in their midst an immense Venetian bowl filled with
roses made a patch of burning colour. Everything was attractive,
refined, appetising; and yet, for some undiscernible reason, the
inmates of the villa appeared in no haste to enjoy the meal that
awaited them.

For fully ten minutes after the coffee had been laid upon the table,
the Italian man-servant stood immovably attentive, his back stiff, his
glance resting expectantly upon the verandah; then his natural interest
in the meal caused him to alter his position and cast a sympathetic eye
upon the coffee in imminent danger of growing