ll were most cordial; none asked
or implied questions."

She had already written to Madame Arconati, asking whether the fact of
her concealed marriage and motherhood would make any difference in their
relations. Her friend, a lady of the highest position and character,
replied: "What difference can it make, except that I shall love you
more, now that we can sympathize as mothers?"

In other letters, Margaret speaks of the loving sympathy expressed for
her by relatives in America. The attitude of her brothers was such as
she had rightly expected it to be. Her mother received the communication
in the highest spirit, feeling assured that a leading motive in
Margaret's withholding of confidence from her had been the desire to
spare her a season of most painful anxiety. Speaking of a letter
recently received from her, Margaret says:--

"She blessed us. She rejoiced that she should not die feeling there was
no one left to love me with the devotion she thought I needed. She
expressed no regret at our poverty, but offered her feeble means."

After a stay of some weeks at Rieti, Margaret, with her husband and
child, journeyed to Perugia, and thence to Florence. At the former place
she remained long enough to read D'Azeglio's "Nicolo dei Lapi," which
she esteemed "a book unenlivened by a spark of genius, but interesting
as illustrative of Florence." Here she felt that she understood, for the
first time, the depth and tenderness of the Umbrian school.

The party reached Florence late in September, and were soon established
in lodgings for the winter. The police at first made some objection to
their remaining in the city, but this matter was soon settled to their
satisfaction. Margaret's thoughts now turned toward her own country and
her own people:--

"It will be sad to leave Italy, uncertain of return. Yet when I think of
you, beloved mother, of brothers and sisters and many friends, I wish to
come. Ossoli is perfectly willing. He will go among strangers; but to
him, as to all the young Italians, America seems the land of liberty."

Margaret's home-letters give lovely glimpses of this season of peace.
Her modest establishment was served by Angelo's nurse, with a little
occasional aid from the porter's wife. The boy himself was now in rosy
health; as his mother says, "a very gay, impetuous, ardent, but
sweet-tempered child." She describes with a mother's delight his visit
to her room at first waking, when he pulls her curta