She came down late to her open-air breakfast, and found a table in a solitary corner, where she could take her coffee and roll unobserved of the few late lingerers on the sunny terrace, whose voices came clear upon the still and flower-scented air to her unheeding ears. The beauty of that wide prospect of sea and mountain never staled; every change of hour and weather gave variety; morning after cloudless morning came always with a fresh surprise and novel charm. Her corner was by the balustrade on the edge of the steep ravine, whence a wall of rock fell steep and far beneath. She sat with the morning sunlight behind her and the lemon terraces sinking away on one side to the platane-shadowed torrent by the road, where the people looked small as ants, and carts and waggons were toys, leading to the clean, bright-walled town embowered in dark foliage, with illimitable spaces of dark purple sea beyond it, all glowing in the clear brilliance of southern sun. Sounds of cheerful labour rose pleasantly from a saw-mill niched in the bottom of a narrow gorge, from carpenters' hammers, mingling with washerwomen's voices, the roll and clatter of wheels, the tramp of soldiers and confused noises of the town, and floated up, softened and mellowed, above the faint and far sea-murmurs. And before her, in the full morning light, so soft though so strong, the white-walled monastery towered high on its dark, wooded ridge, with gabled roof, quivering cypress flames and feathery eucalyptus tops traced clear on the dark blue sky. What a glow in the blue-black pine foliage, what mystery in the purply bloom of those olive-woods, climbing the steep summit far above the vines! How lovingly the golden light lay upon all, steeping it in splendour, caressing it with warm radiance, and bringing out every detail of shape and colour and shadowy distance. Contrasted with all this joyous colour and radiance, how solemnly beautiful was the convent-crested steep, and how grand and awe-inspiring the deep sweet blue of the broad, unbounded sea sweeping far away into unseen space! Her troubled spirit and unquiet heart were soothed and calmed by this familiar but never-staling beauty; the sweet, sharp air, so light and pleasant to breathe, kindled fresh life with every inspiration; she seemed to drink it with her coffee and eat it with her crisp roll and butter. And yet--and yet, with what different eyes she once saw it. Where was the mental elevation, the pure and healing emotion, of her first sight of this large, fresh, foreign beauty of purple-shadowed mountain and glowing sea? Talk about the gaming-tables, about petty vices and sordid troubles, had filled her with incredulous disgust then. But now? She had lost more than money on those green tables, and bartered something more precious than jewels in the glittering Monte Carlo shops; and here, in the pure and rose-scented air, some subtle soul-perfume had floated away and vanished, she knew not how.