gnise the fact that
there is a kind of beauty which needs no ornament.

Brian took off the ugly, blue spectacles which he had adopted of late,
and laid them upon the mantelshelf. He did not need them in the
flickering firelight, which alone illumined the dimness of the room.

Elizabeth laid her shapely arm upon the mantelpiece and looked into the
fire. He stood beside her, looking down at her--for he was a little
taller than herself--but she seemed unconscious of his gaze. She spoke
presently in rather low tones.

"The boys are late. I hope they do not often keep you waiting in this
way."

"They have never done it before. I do not mind."

"They were very anxious to have you back. They missed you very much."

Had she missed him, too? He could not venture to ask that question.

"You will find things changed," she went on, restlessly lifting a little
vase upon the mantelpiece and setting it down again; "you will find us
much busier than we used to be--much more absorbed in our own pursuits.
Scotland is not like Italy."

"No. I wish it were."

"And I----" Her voice broke, as if some emotion troubled her; there came
a swift, short sigh, and then she spoke more calmly. "I wish sometimes
that one had no duties, no responsibilities; but life would not be worth
having if one shirked them, after all."

"There is a charm in life without them--at least, so far without them as
that pleasant life in Italy used to be," said he, rather eagerly.

"Yes, but that is all over."

"All over?"

She bowed her head.

"Is there nothing left?" said Brian, approaching her a little more
nearly. Then, as she was silent, he continued in a hurried, low voice,
"I knew that life must be different here, but I thought that some of the
pleasantest hours might be repeated--even in Scotland--although we are
without those sunny skies and groves of orange trees. Even if the clouds
are grey, and the winds howl without, we might still read Dante's
'Paradiso' and Petrarca's 'Sonnets,' as we used to do at the Villa
Venturi."

"Yes," said Elizabeth, gently, "we might. But here I shall not have
time."

"Why not? Why should you sacrifice yourself for others in the way you
do? It is not right."

"I--sacrifice myself?" she said, lifting her eyes for a moment to his
face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he said, "that I have watched you for the last three months,
and I have seen you day after day give up your own pleasure and your own
profit for