half a dozen
dolphins, ridden by chubby water-sprites, spouted demurely along the
edges of a wide marble basin. A noseless Roman senator stood at the
top of the stairs, wrapping his mossy toga about him, with a splendid
gesture, and the grave images of the Caesars, all time-stained and more
or less seriously maimed, gazed forth with severe dignity from their
green, leafy niches.

The upper garden showed signs of human supervision. A considerable
area was occupied by flower-beds, laid out with geometrical regularity
and stiffness; and the low box-wood hedges along their borders had a
density and preciseness of outline which showed that they had been
recently trimmed. Stone vases of magnificent design were placed at
regular intervals along the balustrade; and in the middle projection
of the terrace stood a hoary table with a broken porphyry plate,
suggestive of coffee and old-time costumes, and the ponderous gossip
of Roman grandees.

Cranbrook had walked for a while silently at Annunciata's side. He
was deeply impressed with all he saw, and yet a dreamy sense of their
unreality was gradually stealing over him. He imagined himself some
wonderful personage in an Eastern fairy-tale, and felt for the moment
as if he were moving in an animated chapter of the "Arabian Nights."
He had had little hesitation in asking Annunciata questions about
herself; they seemed both, somehow, raised above the petty etiquette
of mundane intercourse. She had confessed to him with an unthinking
directness which was extremely becoming to her, that her artistic
aspirations which he had found so mysterious were utterly destitute of
the ideal afflatus. She had, as a child, learned lace-making and
embroidery, and had earned many a _lira_ by adorning the precious
vestments of archbishops and cardinals. She was now making a design
for a tapestry, in which she meant to introduce the group from the
antique relief. Her father allowed her to save all she earned for her
dowry; because then, he said, she might be able to make a good match.
This latter statement grated a little on Cranbrook's sensitive ears;
but a glance at Annunciata's face soon reassured him. She had the air
of stating a universally recognized fact concerning which she had
never had occasion to reflect. She kept prattling away very much like
a spoiled child, who is confident that its voice is pleasant, and its
little experiences as absorbing to its listener as they are to
itself.

At l