Where the chief sitting-room opened towards the garden there was a small terrace, completely shaded from the morning sun, with a fountain so disposed that it fell all down one wall like a waterfall, and round it clambered and waved the wreaths of a hundred creepers, ivy and stephanotis and jessamine and maidenhair fern, all wet and blooming in the gentle moisture of its spray. To the left, the wing in which my own rooms were situated ran far down, affording shade and coolness; a stairway led up to its roof where vast beds of petunias gave out their sweet perfume and were visited every evening at sunset by humming-bird moths who fed on the honey in the white and purple chalices till they could scarcely fly away. The house had been full of guests through July and August and the summer had been divinely bright and cool. Through it all I had looked, day after day, over towards the Sabine Hills, so remote and mysterious for all their nearness to Rome, and a great desire was upon me to penetrate into those blue fastnesses. They had been friends—at a distance—all my life, since I could remember anything, and probably before that, for the big eastern window of the room where I was born looked straight towards them, and doubtless their sun-smitten peaks were the first outside objects my eyes ever beheld. They are our Sibyls, in Rome. They reflect every change of sun and wind, and very early I learnt to tell the signs of the coming weather which they infallibly gave us. I made up my mind to reach them at last, and with some difficulty persuaded my brother and my stepfather to come with me. We were joined by a friend, an elderly English clergyman much loved by us and always known as the “Reverendo.” He came of exceedingly well-known people, but was a younger son with no money—and no encumbrances—and he had long amused us with his quaint ways. He was rather elderly, very tall, with a paganly handsome head, and a quiet way of saying incredible things that made me love him much—and work him hard, for I was a rather spoilt young person in those days and allowed myself unlimited whims, which my blessed family helped me to carry out in the most exemplary way.