Astrid was inclined to be lazy; she enjoyed the sun and the warmth, and the picturesque figures on the Spanish Stairs, but museums and picture galleries bored her, and the churches, she declared, gave her the creeps. So it fell out that Ragna who wished to do her sight-seeing after a methodical plan, generally found herself alone. Armed with a guide book she began at the beginning, as it were, visiting first the most ancient ruins and relics, in their order, working on down to modern times. It disconcerted her to find ancient and modern mingled--as they so often were,--and at the Pantheon she resolutely shut her eyes to the monuments of the House of Savoy, until such time as she should have reached their place in history. It will be seen that her method involved no little difficulty and much returning over the same ground. It seemed pure lunacy to Astrid, who objected to being dragged over and over again to the same place to observe some addition or later adaptation which she had been forbidden to inspect on her first visit. "It would be so easy to see it all at once," she plaintively protested, but Ragna was adamant. Astrid therefore pleaded her delicate health and the overfatigue caused by such strenuous sight-seeing as an excuse to remain at home, where she composed lengthy epistles to her fiancé with whom she was comfortably, if not passionately, in love. On this particular morning she was evolving a description of her impressions during a drive on the Pincio the afternoon before. She felt lazily content with the world, herself, and things in general and had no wish to bestir herself. "I wish you weren't so awfully energetic, Ragna," she said. "Well, I couldn't sit down in Rome and bite my pen all day, as if there were nothing better to do,--you might as well be in Christiania! Come, get on your things!" "What are you going to see to-day?" "I'm not going to see anything this morning. I have some shopping to do in the Corso." Astrid's eyes brightened, then she shook her head. "I must finish my letter first." "Oh, nonsense! Edvard can wait a few hours!" "You always say that--but then you don't know what it is to be engaged," she glanced at the pretty ring decorating her hand. "You see, Edvard gets so huffy if I'm not regular in my correspondence, and I haven't written to him for three days." Ragna shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, very well! I suppose I must wait. Do be as quick as you can, Astrid, the morning is almost all gone."