"Sympathy! She is in a position to extend it to me. I think she is the very luckiest girl I have ever heard of in my life. All another girl can do in the face of such luck as that is to keep away from it, and not think about it--if she can." Miss Jane Wood: "I am _astonished_!" Miss Maria: "!!!!" That evening, at Belmonte, Dorothy walked and walked about the drawing-room; now she stopped at a table, took up something and put it down again; now she moved a statuette to another position; now she gazed at the etchings on the wall as though she had never seen them before; now she added pine-cones to the already blazing fire, kneeling on the rug with the hot flame scorching her face; finally she went to the window, and, parting the curtains, stood looking out. It was a dark night without stars; in addition to the freezing temperature, the wind was fierce; it drove furiously against the windows of the villa, it came round the corner of the tower with a shriek like that of a banshee. "It's dreadfully cold," said the girl at last, as if speaking to herself. "Surely not here?" replied Mrs. Tracy. Dorothy came wandering back to the fire, and then the aunt drew her down by her side. "Dear child, don't keep thinking of Rome," she whispered. "He is not there; there is nothing there but the lifeless clay." And she kissed her. "Try not to be so restless, Dorothy," said Mrs. North, from her warm corner. "You have walked about this room all day." "It's because I'm so tired; I am so tired that I cannot keep still," Dorothy answered. "I think a change would be a good thing for all of us," Mrs. North went on. "We could go to Cannes for two months; we could be as quiet at Cannes as here." Dorothy looked at her with vague eyes, as if waiting to hear more. "It is warmer there. And then there is the sea--to look at, you know," pursued Mrs. North, seeing that she was called upon to exhibit attractions. "Egypt would be my idea," said Mrs. Tracy. "A dahabeeyah on the Nile, Dorothy. Camels; temples." Dorothy listened, as if rather struck by this idea also. "But Egypt would be a fearful trouble, Charlotte," objected Mrs. North. "Who is going to get a good dahabeeyah for us at this time of year?" "Don't spoil it. I'll get twenty," responded the other lady. And then there was a silence. "Well, Dorothy, are you going to leave it to us to decide?" "Yes, mamma," Dorothy answered. Her eyes had grown dull again; she sat listening to the wind as if she had forgotten what they were talking about. "It's decided, then. We will go to Cannes," remarked Mrs. North, serenely.