They saw of Mr Ruskin's Florence brief time permitted; he met them Pitti Gallery and went round , chatting brightly, and evidently very grateful for their recognition great deal about art, and all four enjoyed the morning immensely fine round recognising old favourites and finding new beauties, especially while people fumbled helplessly with Baedeker Nor was he bit of prig, Miss Winchelsea said, and indeed she detested prigs He had distinct undertone of humour, and was funny, for example, without being vulgar, expense quaint work of Beato Angelico He had grave seriousness beneath it all, and was quick to seize the moral lessons pictures Fanny went softly masterpieces; she admitted "she knew so little ," and she confessed that to her they were "all beautiful " Fanny's "beautiful" inclined little monotonous, Miss Winchelsea thought She quite glad last sunny Alp had vanished, because staccato of Fanny's admiration Helen said little, but Miss Winchelsea had found her trifle wanting aesthetic side old days and was not surprised; sometimes she laughed young man's hesitating, delicate jests and sometimes she didn't, and sometimes she seemed quite lost art contemplation dresses other visitors

At Rome the young man was intermittently rather "touristy" friend took him away at times He complained comically to Miss Winchelsea " only two short weeks in Rome," , "and my friend Leonard wants whole day at Tivoli looking at waterfall "

" your friend Leonard ? " asked Miss Winchelsea abruptly

"He's the most enthusiastic pedestrian I ever met," the young man replied--amusingly, but little unsatisfactorily, Miss Winchelsea thought

They had some glorious times, and Fanny think what done without him Miss Winchelsea's interest and Fanny's enormous capacity for admiration were insatiable They never flagged--through pictures and sculpture galleries, immense crowded churches, ruins and museums, Judas trees and prickly pears, wine carts and palaces, they admired their way unflinchingly They never saw stone pine or eucalyptus but they named and admired it; they never glimpsed Soracte but they exclaimed Their common ways were made wonderful by imaginative play "Here Caesar walked," say "Raphael seen Soracte very point " They happened tomb of Bibulus "Old Bibulus," said the young man "The oldest monument of Republican Rome ! " said Miss Winchelsea

"I'm dreadfully stupid," said Fanny, "but who was Bibulus ? "

curious little pause

"Wasn't he the person who built the wall ? " said Helen

The young man glanced quickly at her and laughed "That was Balbus," Helen reddened, but neither he nor Miss Winchelsea threw any light upon Fanny's ignorance about Bibulus

Helen was more taciturn other three, but then she was always taciturn, and usually she took care tram tickets and things like that, or kept her eye on them young man took them, and told him where they were when them Glorious times they had, these young people, pale brown cleanly city of memories that was once the world Their only sorrow shortness time They said indeed electric trams '70 buildings, criminal advertisement that glares Forum, outraged their aesthetic feelings unspeakably; but that was only part fun And indeed Rome is such wonderful place made Miss Winchelsea forget some of her most carefully prepared enthusiasms at times, and Helen, taken unawares, would suddenly admit the beauty of unexpected things Yet Fanny and Helen liked shop window or so English quarter if Miss Winchelsea's uncompromising hostility to all other English visitors rendered that district impossible

The intellectual and aesthetic fellowship of Miss Winchelsea scholarly young man passed insensibly towards deeper feeling The exuberant Fanny did her best pace with their recondite admiration by playing her "beautiful" with vigour, and saying "Oh ! let's go," with enormous appetite whenever new place of interest was mentioned But Helen developed certain want of sympathy towards the end that disappointed Miss Winchelsea little She refused "anything" face of Beatrice Cenci--Shelley's Beatrice Cenci ! -- Barberini Gallery; and one day, were deploring the electric trams, she said rather snappishly that "people must get about somehow, and it's better than torturing horses up these horrid little hills " She spoke Seven Hills of Rome as "horrid little hills " !

day they went Palatine--though Miss Winchelsea know --she remarked suddenly to Fanny, "Don't hurry like that, my dear; _they don't want us to overtake them And we don't say the right things when get near "

"I wasn't trying to overtake them," said Fanny, slackening her excessive pace; "I wasn't indeed " And for minute she was short of breath

But Miss Winchelsea had come upon happiness only when she came to look back across an intervening tragedy that she quite realised how happy she pacing cypress-shadowed ruins, and exchanging the very highest class of information the human mind can possess, the most refined impressions possible to convey Insensibly emotion crept into their intercourse, sunning itself openly and pleasantly at last when Helen's modernity was not too near Insensibly their interest drifted wonderful associations more intimate and personal feelings In tentative way information was supplied; she spoke allusively of her school, of her examination successes, of her gladness days of "Cram" were over it quite clear that he also was teacher They spoke greatness calling, necessity of sympathy its irksome details, of certain loneliness they sometimes felt

That was Colosseum, and as far got that day, because Helen returned with Fanny--she had taken her upper galleries Yet the private dreams of Miss Winchelsea, already vivid and concrete enough, became now realistic highest degree She figured that pleasant young man lecturing most edifying way students, herself modestly prominent as his intellectual mate and helper; she figured refined little home, with two bureaus, with white shelves of high-class books, and autotypes pictures of Rossetti and Burne Jones, with Morris's wall-papers and flowers in pots of beaten copper Indeed she figured many things Pincio the two had few precious moments together, while Helen marched Fanny off the muro Torto_, and he spoke at once plainly he hoped their friendship was only beginning, that he already found her company very precious to him, that indeed more than that

He became nervous, thrusting at his glasses with trembling fingers he fancied his emotions made them unstable " ," , "tell you things about myself rather unusual my speaking like this Only our meeting so accidental--or providential--and snatching at things to Rome expecting lonely tour . and so very happy, so very happy Quite recently found myself -- dared ----, And----"

He glanced over his shoulder and stopped "Demn ! " quite distinctly--and she condemn him manly lapse into profanity She looked and saw his friend Leonard advancing He drew nearer; he raised his hat to Miss Winchelsea, smile was almost grin "I've been looking everywhere, Snooks," "You promised Piazza steps half-an-hour ago "

Snooks ! The name struck Miss Winchelsea like blow face She hear his reply She thought afterwards that Leonard considered her the vaguest-minded person day sure whether she was introduced to Leonard or not, nor what she said to him sort of mental paralysis was upon her Of all offensive surnames--Snooks !

Helen and Fanny were returning, there were civilities, young men were receding By great effort she controlled herself the inquiring eyes of her friends All that afternoon she lived the life of heroine under the indescribable outrage name, chatting, observing, with "Snooks" gnawing at her heart moment first rang upon her ears, the dream of her happiness was prostrate dust All the refinement she had figured was ruined and defaced cognomen's unavoidable vulgarity

What refined little home to her now, spite of autotypes, Morris papers, and bureaus ? Athwart it in letters of fire ran an incredible inscription: " Mrs Snooks " seem little thing reader, but consider the delicate refinement of Miss Winchelsea's mind Be as refined and then think of writing yourself down:--"Snooks " She conceived herself being addressed as Mrs Snooks by all the people she liked least, conceived the patronymic touched with vague quality of insult She figured card of grey and silver bearing 'Winchelsea' triumphantly effaced by an arrow, Cupid's arrow, in favour of "Snooks " Degrading confession of feminine weakness ! She imagined the terrible rejoicings of certain girl friends, of certain grocer cousins from whom her growing refinement had long since estranged her How make it sprawl across the envelope bring their sarcastic congratulations Would even his pleasant company compensate her ? " impossible," she muttered; "impossible ! Snooks ! "

She was sorry for him, but not so sorry as she was for herself For him she had touch of indignation so nice, so refined, while all the time "Snooks," to hide under pretentious gentility of demeanour the badge sinister surname seemed sort of treachery it language of sentimental science she felt he had "led her on "

There were, , moments of terrible vacillation, period even when something almost like passion bid her throw refinement winds And something in her, an unexpurgated vestige of vulgarity that made strenuous attempt at proving that Snooks was not so very bad name after all Any hovering hesitation flew before Fanny's manner, when Fanny came with an air of catastrophe that she also knew the horror Fanny's voice fell to whisper when she said Snooks Miss Winchelsea give him any answer when at last, Borghese, she minute ; but she promised him note

She handed him that note little book of poetry he had lent her, the little book that had first drawn them together Her refusal was ambiguous, allusive no more tell him why she rejected him than she told cripple hump He too must feel something unspeakable quality name Indeed he had avoided dozen chances of telling it, she now perceived So she spoke of "obstacles reveal"--"reasons why the thing he spoke of was impossible " She addressed the note with shiver, "E K Snooks "