to
her grew the thought of resigning her local importance. Her pride,
whenever irritated, showed itself in ways which exposed her to the
ridicule of envious acquaintances. At length Bartles was surprised with
an announcement of what had so long been in her mind; a newspaper
paragraph made known, as if with authority, the great and noble work
Mrs. Baske was about to undertake. For a day or two Miriam enjoyed the
excitement this produced--the inquiries, the felicitations, the reports
of gossip. She held her head more firmly than ever; she seemed of a
sudden to be quite re-established in health.

Another day or two, and she was lying seriously ill--so ill that her
doctor summoned aid from Manchester.

What a distance between those memories, even the latest of them, and
this room in Villa Sannazaro! Its foreign aspect, its brightness, its
comfort, the view from the windows, had from the first worked upon her
with subtle influences of which she was unconscious. By reason of her
inexperience of life, it was impossible for Miriam to analyze her own
being, and note intelligently the modifications it underwent.
Introspection meant to her nothing but debates held with conscience--a
technical conscience, made of religious precepts. Original reflection,
independent of these precepts, was to her very simply a form of sin, a
species of temptation for which she had been taught to prepare herself.
With anxiety, she found herself slipping away from that firm ground
whence she was won't to judge all within and about her; more and more
difficult was it to keep in view that sole criterion in estimating the
novel impressions she received. To review the criterion itself was
still beyond her power. She suffered from the conviction that trials
foreseen were proving too strong for her. Whenever her youth yielded to
the allurement of natural joys, there followed misery of penitence. Not
that Miriam did in truth deem it a sin to enjoy the sunshine and the
breath of the sea and the beauty of mountains (though such delights
might become excessive, like any other, and so veil temptation), but
she felt that for one in her position of peril there could not be too
strict a watch kept upon the pleasures that were admitted. Hence she
could never forget herself in pleasure; her attitude must always be
that of one on guard.

The name of Italy signified perilous enticement, and she was beginning
to feel it. The people amid whom she lived were all but avo