ys and others.

Some eighteen or twenty of us used to meet every Sunday evening in
Mrs. Mackinnon's drawing-room. Many of us, indeed, were in the habit
of seeing one another daily and of visiting together the haunts in
Rome which are best loved by art-loving strangers; but here in this
drawing-room we were sure to come together, and here before the end of
November Mrs. Talboys might always be found, not in any accustomed seat,
but moving about the room as the different male mental attractions of
our society might chance to move themselves. She was at first greatly
taken by Mackinnon, who also was, I think, a little stirred by her
admiration, though he stoutly denied the charge. She became, however,
very dear to us all before she left us, and certainly we owed to her our
love, for she added infinitely to the joys of our winter.

"I have come here to refresh myself," she said to Mackinnon one
evening--to Mackinnon and myself, for we were standing together.

"Shall I get you tea?" said I.

"And will you have something to eat?" Mackinnon asked.

"No, no, no," she answered. "Tea, yes; but for heaven's sake let nothing
solid dispel the associations of such a meeting as this!"

"I thought you might have dined early," said Mackinnon. Now Mackinnon
was a man whose own dinner was very dear to him. I have seen him become
hasty and unpleasant, even under the pillars of the Forum, when he
thought that the party were placing his fish in jeopardy by their desire
to linger there too long.

"Early! Yes--no; I know not when it was. One dines and sleeps in
obedience to that dull clay which weighs down so generally the particle
of our spirit; but the clay may sometimes be forgotten; here I can
always forget it."

"I thought you asked for refreshment," I said. She only looked at me,
whose small attempts at prose composition had up to that time been
altogether unsuccessful, and then addressed herself to reply to
Mackinnon.

"It is the air which we breathe that fills our lungs and gives us
life and light; it is that which refreshes us if pure or sinks us into
stagnation if it be foul. Let me for a while inhale the breath of an
invigorating literature. Sit down, Mr. Mackinnon; I have a question that
I must put to you." And then she succeeded in carrying him off into a
corner. As far as I could see he went willingly enough at that time,
though he soon became averse to any long retirement in company with Mrs.
Talboys.

We none of us