“Oh, of course, I always thought of England as home, though I managed to live very happily wherever I found myself,” replied the girl. “Sometimes when I was suddenly brought face to face with a party of English men and women making a tour of Italy, my longing to be in England was easily repressed. Indeed I may safely say that at no time did I feel very patriotic. The greater number of the people whom I met painted such a picture of England as reconciled me to live abroad.” “You do not recognize the country from their description?” “Why, they talked of nothing but fogs--they made me believe that from August to May there was nothing but fog hanging over the whole of the country--fog and damp and rain and snow. Well, we haven't driven into a fog up to the present, and I find these furs that Mrs. Adrian advised me to buy in London, almost oppressive. The green of the meadows beside the little stream is brighter than the green of olive trees in winter. Yesterday the sky was blue, and to-day it is the same. Oh, I have become more English than the English themselves; I feel myself ready to refer to every one who is not English as a miserable foreigner.” “That is the proper spirit to acquire: I hope you will be able to retain it all through the winter. We do not invariably have blue skies and dry roads during November and December in England. But we have at least comfortable houses, with capacious fireplaces.” “That is something. I never saw a really good fire until I came to England. I have sat shivering in the house in which we lived at Siena. The little brazier of charcoal which was brought into the room for a few minutes only seemed to make us colder.” Agnes laughed, and there was a considerable pause before she said: “And your mother. I wonder if she was quite happy living abroad all her life?” “Only during her last illness did she express a wish to see England once more,” said Clare. “Ah, I cannot speak of it--I could not tell you all she said in those last piteous days. After she had written that letter which I brought to you--she would not allow me to see a line of it, but sealed it and put it away under her pillow--all her thoughts seemed to return to her home. Every night as I sat up with her I could hear her murmur: 'If I could only see it again--if I could only see the meadows, and smell the English may!' Ah, I cannot speak of it.” The girl turned her head away, and a little sob struggled in her throat. “My poor child!” said Agnes. “You have all my sympathy. I can sympathise with you.” CHAPTER XVIII. |They did not exchange a word for some time; and when the silence was broken it was by Clare. “Just before her illness I ventured to suggest to her that we might go for a month or two to England,” she said. “And then”--