and beauty might
have affected a sterner heart than Dick's.

"Now I wonder if she knows how perfectly and radiantly lovely she
is," thought he, as she looked at him and smiled.

He joined her a little way from the gate.

"So you do not forget."

"_I_ forget! Before I spoke to you I thought of you without ceasing,
and now I can never forget you."

"Do your friends know where you are?" she asked, timidly.

"Do you think I would tell them?"

"Are you going to stay long in Rome?"

"I will not go away for a long time."

"You are an American."

"Yes."

"America is very far away."

"But it is easy to get there."

"How long will you be in Rome?"

"I don't know. A very long time."

"Not in the summer?"

"Yes, in the summer."

"But the malaria. Are you not afraid of that? Will your friends stay?"

"I do not care whether my friends do or not."

"But you will be left alone."

"I suppose so."

"But what will you do for company? It will be very lonely."

"I will think of you all day, and at evening come to the gate."

"Oh, Signore! You jest now!"

"How can I jest with you?"

"You don't mean what you say."

"Pepita!"

Pepita blushed and looked embarrassed. Dick had called her by her
Christian name; but she did not appear to resent it.

"You don't know who I am," she said at last. "Why do you pretend to
be so friendly?"

"I know that you are Pepita, and I don't want to know any thing
more, except one thing, which I am afraid to ask."

Pepita quickened her pace.

"Do not walk so fast, Pepita," said Dick, beseechingly. "Let the walk
be as long as you can."

"But if I walked so slowly you would never let me get home."

"I wish I could make the walk so slow that we could spend a
life-time on the road."

Pepita laughed. "That would be a long time."

It was getting late. The sun was half-way below the horizon. The sky
was flaming with golden light, which glanced dreamily through the hazy
atmosphere. Every thing was toned down to soft beauty. Of course it
was the season for lovers and lovers' vows. Pepita walked a little
more slowly to oblige Dick. She uttered an occasional murmur at their
slow progress, but still did not seem eager to quicken her pace. Every
step was taken unwillingly by Dick, who wanted to prolong the happy
time.

Pepita's voice was the sweetest in the world, and her soft Italian
sounded more musically that that language had ever sounded before.
She seemed happy, and by ma