"Beautiful"

The mother was like a fountain of questions, and the daughter, who listened silently, might pass for the naiad of the fountain. How beautiful she was! She was something for a sculptor to look at, but not to speak with, for indeed she talked but very little.

"Has the Pope a large family?" asked the lady.

And the young man answered considerately, as if the question had been put differently, "No, he doesn't come of a very great family."

"That's not what I mean," said the lady. "I mean, does he have a wife and children?"

"The Pope isn't allowed to marry," he replied.

"I don't approve of that," said the lady.

She might well have talked and questioned him more intelligently, but if she hadn't said and asked what she did, would her daughter have leaned so gracefully on her shoulder, looking straight before her with an almost melancholy smile on her lips?

And Mr. Alfred told them of the glorious colors of Italy, the purple of the mountains, the blue of the Mediterranean, the blue of the southern skies, a beauty that could only be surpassed in the North by the deep-blue eyes of a maiden. This he said with peculiar meaning, but she who should have understood it looked quite unconscious, and that, too, was charming!

"Ah, Italy!" sighed some of the guests.

"Traveling!" sighed others.

"Charming, charming!"

"Well," said the widow, "if I win fifty thousand dollars in the lottery, we'll travel! My daughter and I. You Mr. Alfred, must be our guide. We'll all three go, with just one or two good friends with us." Then she smiled in such a friendly manner at the company that each of them could imagine he was the person who would accompany them to Italy. "Yes, we'll go to Italy! But not to the parts where the robbers are; we'll stay in Rome and only travel by the great highways where we'll be safe."

And the daughter sighed very gently. And how much may lie in one little sigh or be read into it! The young man read a great deal into it. Those two blue eyes, bright that evening in his honor, must conceal treasures of heart and mind rarer than all the glories of Rome!