et the incident pass. He had ceased
to be furious at Antonia; he had not written in cold blood the wrathful,
finishing letter planned in heat of brain. That, after all, was Antonia
as he had always known her and been her friend: Antonia, capable of
heroisms and generosities, fineness and insight, density and petulance.
One could not drop the great woman into the waste-basket because on one
occasion more she had been perverse and the sufferer happened to be
oneself. But the great woman, thought Gerald, needed a sober word spoken
to her. In conclusion, he would not go to see her, no, until he could
have it out with her.

And so instead of seeking Antonia in her box, Gerald cut short his
difficulty by going home. It was high time; it had been Lent for hours.
If Antonia were _intrigata_ at his failure to appear, it would only
be in keeping with the fanciful circumstances of the hour and place.

CHAPTER XIII

Early in Lent the weather treated Florence to what Aurora and Estelle
called a cold snap. Their surprise and indignation were extreme. That
Italy, sunny Italy, should feel herself free to have these alpine or
polar fancies!

Estelle showed what she thought of it by taking cold. Aurora affected
wearing her furs in the house. To increase their sense of ill usage,
they would now and then turn their faces away from the fire and sigh,
admiring how the air was dimmed by a puff of silver smoke. These
pilgrims from a Northern climate, who knew so well the sensation of
breath freezing in the nostrils and numbness seizing the nose when on
certain winter days they stepped from their houses into the snow-piled
streets at home, could not admit that in the City of Flowers one should
catch sight of one's breath,--indoors, too.

The little monthly roses, shivering but brave, blooming still, or
blooming already, out in the garden, bore witness, after all, to the
clemency of the winter, and upheld the city's title to its name. The
garden altogether was nearly as green as ever. Against alaternus, ivy,
myrtle, laurestine the season could not prevail. Aurora decided that the
blame for their discomfort rested with the house; she planned drastic
and fundamental improvements which it was quite certain the noble
landlord would not permit her to carry out.

What with Estelle being half sick and herself, as she claimed, half
frozen, Aurora at the end of a day during which the sun had not lighted
the world by one feeblest ray, and t