on three sides enclose the town; and then Dolly and her
mother, with Rupert's help, would wind their way down amid the
wilderness of lovely vegetation with which the sides and bottom of the
ravine were grown. At the bottom of the dell they would provide Mrs.
Copley with a soft bed of moss or a convenient stone to rest upon;
while the younger people roved all about, gathering flowers, or finding
something for Dolly to sketch, and coming back ever and anon to Mrs.
Copley to show what they had found or tell what they had seen; and Mrs.
Copley for the time forgot her ills, and even forgot Boston, and was
amused, and enjoyed the warm air and the luxuriant and sweet nature of
Italy. Sometimes Lawrence came instead of Rupert; and Dolly did not
enjoy herself so well. But Lawrence was at his own risk now; she could
not take care of him. Except by maintaining her calm, careless,
disengaged manner; and that she did. There were other times when Dolly
and Rupert went out in a boat on the sea. Steps in the rock led
immediately down from the garden to the shore; on the shore were
fishermen's huts, and a boat was always to be had. Long expeditions by
water could not be undertaken, for Mrs. Copley could not be tempted out
on the sea, and she might not be long left alone; but there were lovely
hours, when Rupert rowed the boat over the golden and purple waves,
when all the air seemed rosy and all the sea enamelled, and the sky and
the clouds (as Rupert said) were as if they had come out of a fairy
book; every colour was floating there and sending down a paradise of
broken rainbows upon water and land and the heads of the two
pleasure-takers.

But even at Sorrento there was a shadow over Dolly.

For the first weeks the gentlemen, that is, Mr. Copley and his supposed
secretary, made numerous excursions. Mrs. Copley utterly declined to
take part in anything that could be called an excursion; and Dolly
would not go without her. Lawrence and Mr. Copley therefore went
whither they would alone, and saw everything that could be seen within
two or three days of Sorrento; for they were gone sometimes as long as
that. They took provisions with them; and Dolly sadly feared, nay, she
knew, that wines formed a large part of their travelling stock on these
occasions; she feared, even, no small part of the attraction of them.
Mr. Copley generally came back not exactly the same as when he went;
there was an indescribable look and air which made Dolly's