are men who consider themselves bound to make love to
a woman under certain circumstances, let the age of the lady be what it
may. O'Brien is such a one; and if she sympathises with him much oftener
he will mistake the matter and go down on his knees. You ought to put
him on his guard," he said, addressing himself to his wife.

"Indeed, I shall do no such thing," said she; "if they are two fools
they must, like other fools, pay the price of their folly." As a rule
there could be no softer creature than Mrs. Mackinnon, but it seemed to
me that her tenderness never extended itself in the direction of Mrs.
Talboys.

Just at this time, toward the end, that is, of November, we made a
party to visit the tombs which lie along the Appian Way beyond that
most beautiful of all sepulchres, the tomb of Cecilia Metella. It was a
delicious day, and we had driven along this road for a couple of miles
beyond the walls of the city, enjoying the most lovely view which the
neighborhood of Rome affords, looking over the wondrous ruins of the old
aqueducts up toward Tivoli and Palestrina. Of all the environs of Rome
this is, on a fair day, the most enchanting; and here perhaps, among a
world of tombs, thoughts and almost memories of the old, old days come
upon one with the greatest force. The grandeur of Rome is best seen and
understood from beneath the walls of the Colosseum, and its beauty
among the pillars of the Forum and the arches of the Sacred Way; but
its history and fall become more palpable to the mind and more clearly
realised out here among the tombs, where the eyes rest upon the
mountains, whose shades were cool to the old Romans as to us, than
anywhere within the walls of the city. Here we look out at the same
Tivoli and the same Praeneste glittering in the sunshine, embowered
among the far-off valleys, which were dear to them; and the blue
mountains have not crumbled away into ruins. Within Rome itself we can
see nothing as they saw it.

Our party consisted of some dozen or fifteen persons, and, as a hamper
with luncheon in it had been left on the grassy slope at the base of
the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the expedition had in it something of the
nature of a picnic. Mrs. Talboys was of course with us, and Ida Talboys.
O'Brien also was there. The hamper had been prepared in Mrs. Mackinnon's
room under the immediate eye of Mackinnon himself, and they therefore
were regarded as the dominant spirits of the party. My wife was lea