ecially, which related to a dream he had in early life, I remember as
being told with great felicity and vivacity of expression."

Though opposed, like all liberals, to the ecclesiastical government of
Rome, the Marchese appeared to Mr. Hurlbut a devout Catholic. He often
attended vesper services in Florence, and Margaret, unwavering in her
Protestantism, still found it sweet to kneel by his side.

Margaret read, this winter, Louis Blanc's "Story of Ten Years," and
Lamartine's "Girondists." Her days were divided between family cares and
her literary work, which for the time consisted in recording her
impressions of recent events. She sometimes passed an evening at the
rooms occupied by the Mozier and Chapman families, where the Americans
then resident in Florence were often gathered together. She met Mr. and
Mrs. Browning often, and with great pleasure. The Marchesa Arconati she
saw almost daily.

One of Margaret's last descriptions is of the Duomo,[G] which she
visited with her husband on Christmas eve:--

"No one was there. Only the altars were lit up, and the priests, who
were singing, could not be seen by the faint light. The vast solemnity
of the interior is thus really felt. The Duomo is more divine than St.
Peter's, and worthy of genius pure and unbroken. St. Peter's is, like
Rome, a mixture of sublimest heaven with corruptest earth. I adore the
Duomo, though no place can now be to me like St. Peter's, where has been
passed the splendidest part of my life."

Thus looked to her, in remembrance, the spot where she had first met her
husband, where she had shared his heroic vigils, and stood beside him
within reach of death.

The little household suffered some inconvenience before the winter was
over. By the middle of December the weather became severely cold, and
Margaret once more experienced the inconvenience of ordinary lodgings in
Italy, in which the means of heating the rooms are very limited. The
baby grew impatient of confinement, and constantly pointed to the door,
which he was not allowed to pass. Of their several rooms, one only was
comfortable under these circumstances. Of this, as occupied in the
winter evenings, Mr. Hurlbut has given a pleasant description:--

"A small, square room, sparingly yet sufficiently furnished, with
polished floor and frescoed ceiling; and, drawn up closely before the
cheerful fire, an oval table, on which stood a monkish lamp of brass,
with depending chains that support