a lady got out, muffled in a large cloak,
and wearing the hood over her head, and hastily passed into the little
kitchen of the house. Scarcely had she entered, than, throwing off her
cloak, she said, in a gay and easy voice, "I have often promised myself
a visit to the villa when there would be a grand storm to look at Don't
you think that I have hit on the day to keep my pledge?" The speech was
made so frankly that it pleased the hearers, nowise surprised, besides,
at any eccentricity on the part of strangers; and now the family, young
and old, gathered around the visitor, and talked, and questioned, and
admired her dress and her appearance, and told her so, too, with a
pleasant candor not displeasing. They saw she was a stranger, but knew
not from where. Her accent was not Roman; they knew no more; nor did she
give much time for speculating, as she contrived to make herself at home
amongst them by ingratiating herself imperceptibly into the good graces
of each present, from the gray-headed man to whom she discoursed of
cattle and their winter food, to the little toddling infant, who would
insist upon being held upon her lap.

The day went on, and yet never a lull came in the storm that permitted
a visit to the roof to see the lightning that played along the distant
horizon. She betrayed no impatience, however; she laughingly said she
was very comfortable at the fireside, and could afford to wait. She
expected her brother, it is true, to have met her there, and more than
once despatched a messenger to the door to see if he could not descry a
horseman on the high-road. The same answer came always back: nothing to
be seen for miles round.

"Well," said she, good-humoredly, "you must give me a share of your
dinner, for my drive has given me an appetite, and I will still wait
here another hour."

It would have made a pleasing picture as she sat there,--her fair and
beautiful features graced with that indescribable charm of expression
imparted by the wish to please in those who have made the art to please
their study; to have seen her surrounded by those bronzed and seared
and careworn looks, now brightened up by the charm of a spell that had
often worked its power on their superiors; to have marked how delicately
she initiated herself into their little ways, and how marvellously the
captivation of her gentleness spread its influence over them. In their
simple piety they likened her to the image of all that embodies bea