r; and the loss
she felt was the loss of love,--not Howard's love--but love for itself
alone. She was not just the same girl she was when she had entered
Florence a few months ago, nor ever again would be; and between her and
Bettina,--the sisters who before this had been "as one soul in two
bodies,"--ran a mysterious Rubicon, the outer shore of which Bettina's
feet had not yet touched.

The hasty return of Mr. Sumner and Malcom with two lusty _facchini_, who
seized the hand-luggage, the hurry to be among the first at the opening
of the big doors upon the platform beside which their train was drawn
up, and the little bustle of excitement consequent on the desire to
secure an entire compartment for their party filled the next few
minutes, and soon they were off.

The journey led through a charming country lying at the base of the
Apennines. Picturesque castles and city-crowned hills against the
background of blue mountains, many of whose summits were covered with
gleaming snow, kept them looking and exclaiming with delight, until
finally they reached Lucca, and, sweeping in a half circle around Monte
San Giuliano, which, as Dante wrote, hides the two cities, Lucca and
Pisa, from each other, they arrived at Pisa.

Although they expected to find an old, worn-out city, yet only Mr.
Sumner and Mrs. Douglas were quite prepared for the dilapidated
carriages that were waiting to take them from the station to their
hotels; for the almost deserted streets, and the general pronounced air
of decadence. Even the Arno seemed to have lost all freshness, and left
all beauty behind as it flowed from Florence, and was here only a
swiftly flowing mass of muddy waters.

After having taken possession of their rooms in one of the hotels which
look out upon the river, and having lunched in the chilly dining room,
which they found after wandering through rooms and halls filled with
marble statues and bric-a-brac set forth to tempt the eyes of
travellers, and so suggestive of the quarries in which the neighboring
mountains are rich, they started forth for that famous group of sacred
buildings which gives Pisa its present fame.

They were careful to enter the Cathedral by the richly wrought door in
the south transept (the only old one left) and, passing the font of holy
water, above which stands a _Madonna and Child_ designed by Michael
Angelo, sat down beneath Andrea del Sarto's _St. Agnes_, and listened to
Mr. Sumner's description of the