n, what of the night?' Secchi could hear the question;
and no bolder views emanate from any observatory than those which Secchi
sends out.

"I sent a card to Secchi, and awaited a call, well satisfied to have a
little more time for listless strolling among ruins and into the
studios. And so we spent many an hour: picking up land shells from the
top of the Coliseum, gathering violets in the upper chambers of the
Palace of the Caesars,--for the overgrown walls made climbing very
easy,--or, resting upon some broken statue on the Forum, we admired the
arches of the Temple of Peace, thrown upon the rich blue of the sunny
skies.

"Returning one day from a drive, I met two priests descending one of the
upper flights of stairs in the house where I lived. As my rooms had been
blessed once, and holy water sprinkled upon them, I thought perhaps
another process of that kind had just been gone through, and was about
to pass them, when one of them, accosting me, asked if I were the
Signorine Mitchell,--changing his Italian to good English as he saw that
I was, and introducing himself as Father Secchi. He told me that the
younger man was a young _religieux_, and the two turned and went back
with me.

"I recalled, as I saw Father Secchi, an anecdote I had heard, no way to
his credit,--except for ingenious trickery. It was said that coming to
America he brought with him the object-glass of a telescope, at a time
when scientific apparatus paid a high duty. Being asked by some official
what the article was, he replied, 'My looking-glass,' and in that way
passed it off as personal wardrobe, so escaped the duty. (It may have
been De Vico.)

"Father Secchi had brought with him, to show me, negatives of the planet
Saturn,--the rings showing beautifully, although the image was not more
than half an inch in size.

"I was ignorant enough of the ways of papal institutions, and, indeed,
of all Italy, to ask if I might visit the Roman Observatory. I
remembered that the days of Galileo were days of two centuries since. I
did not know that my heretic feet must not enter the sanctuary,--that my
woman's robe must not brush the seats of learning.

"The Father's refusal was seen in his face at once, and I felt that I
had done something highly improper. The Father said that he would have
been most happy to have me visit him, but he had not the power--it was a
religious institution--he had already applied to his superior, who was
not willing to gra