ishment.

The interior of the island, though grandly impressive, is unusually
bare, save for its wild flowers, the ancient forests having long since
disappeared. Our road lay for a time along the sea, and then inland,
always mounting up into the heart of the mountains, by long, green
valleys and over desolate plateaux where flocks of sheep and goats
grazed under the guardianship of wild-looking shepherds and fierce dogs,
the latter violently resenting the intrusion of the car into their
fastnesses. We saw few people on the road, and passed only the poorest
villages; but we had brought an excellent luncheon which we ate by the
roadside, we three (would it had been two!), alone in a wide and
solitary landscape. A very few years ago such a journey as this across
the interior of Sicily would have been highly dangerous on account of
brigands. As it was we had scowls from dark-browed men whose horses took
fright at us, but no such encounter as we had with the peasants in
France. An Englishman at Palermo who has lived long in Sicily warned me
that every Sicilian carries a gun, and said that in the wild interior
they would very likely shoot at the automobile for the mere fun of the
thing as they would at any other strange beast that was new to them.
This wasn't encouraging to hear. But though we met some
truculent-looking fellows on the road, their sentiments towards us
seemed to be those of wonder rather than animosity.

The sun was sinking in a haze of rose and gold as we came to the crest
of the long hill on which stands the town of Girgenti, passed through
it, and coasted down to the Hotel des Temples. Beyond the hotel, which
stands isolated between the town and the sea, we saw suddenly the great
Temple of Concord, a lonely and magnificent monument. It affects the
imagination as Stonehenge does when you see it for the first time. The
red rays of the sun shone aslant upon its splendid amber-coloured
pillars and colossal pediments, revealing every detail of the pure Doric
architecture. When the smiling Signor Gagliardi had received us and
allotted rooms to the party (the best in the house for the American
ladies on their automobile, and a little one for the _chauffeur_), I
strolled in the fragrant old garden, and leaning on the balustrade by
the ancient well of carved stone, looked long over this wonderful
plateau above the sea, where once stood perhaps the finest assemblage of
Greek temples the world has ever seen. Next mor