Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: Alone in her room later ... she looked at the other portrait] AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT BY GERTRUDE HALL AUTHOR OF "THE TRUTH ABOUT CAMILLA," "THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY GERALD LEAKE NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1917 Copyright, 1916, 1917, by The Century Co. Published, March, 1917 TO MY SISTER GRACE WITHOUT WHOM THIS BOOK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN. AND TO MY DEAR HELEN R----, WITHOUT WHOM IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Alone in her room later ... she looked at the other portrait Frontispiece FACING PAGE After it she still stood a moment, looking toward the sanctuary 20 "I thought," said Mrs. Hawthorne, "that you were going to come and take us sight-seeing" 82 Aurora, clasping her hands in a delight that could find no words to express it, made a sound like the coo of a dove 200 Gerald turned, and beheld that lady 272 Aurora's eyes, fixed and starry, rested upon the little flame 290 Aurora, with a comedy of pride, threw up her chin, lifted her arms, and turned as if on a pivot 316 "Come, let us reason together, Aurora" 384 AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT CHAPTER I Near sunset, one day in early October, not too long ago for some of us to remember with distinctness, Mr. Foss, United States consul at Florence, Italy, took a cab, as on other days, to the Porta Romana. Here, where the out-of-town tariff comes into effect, he paid his man, and set out to walk the rest of the way, thus meeting the various needs he felt: that for economy,--he was a family man with daughters to clothe,--that for exercise,--his wife told him he was growing fat,--and the need in general for an opportunity to think. He had found that walking aided reflection, that walking in beautiful places started the spring of apt and generous ideas. Though in his modest way a scholar, he was not as yet an author, but Florence had inspired him with the desire to write a book. Just beyond the Roman Gate begins the long Viale dei Colli,--Avenue of the Hills,--which climbs and winds, broad, shady, quiet, between lines of gardens and villas, occupied largely by foreigners, to the Piazzale, whence Michelangelo's boyish colossus gazes with a slight frown across Florence, outspread at his feet. Mr. Foss, as he mounted the easy grade, and noted with a liking unabated after years the pleasantness of each habitation glimpsed through iron railings and embowering green, thought how privileged a person should feel, after all, whose affairs involved residence in Italy.