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Page 48
Cupid Laughs.
_From court to the cottage,
In bower and in hall,
From the king unto the beggar,
Love conquers all.
Though ne'er so stout and lordly,
Strive or do what you may,
Yet be you ne'er so hardy,
Love will find out the way._
--ANONYMOUS
[Illustration: RUINS OF FORUM, ROME.]
Mr. Sumner and Mrs. Douglas had been most fortunate in getting
possession of extremely pleasant apartments close to the Pincio. These
were in the very same house in which they had lived with their parents
twenty years before, when Mrs. Douglas was a young girl of eighteen
years. Here she had first met and learned to love young Kenneth Douglas,
so that most tender memories clustered about the place, and she was glad
that her children should learn to know it.
She soon began to pick up the old threads of life. "Ah me! what golden
threads they then were," she often sighed. Mr. Sumner was at home here
in Rome almost as much as in Florence, and was busy for a time making
and receiving calls from artist friends.
Malcom had his own private guide, and from morning until night they
hardly saw him. He averred himself to be in the seventh heaven, and
there was little need that he should proclaim the fact; it was evident
enough. Julius C�sar's Commentaries, Cicero's Orations, Virgil, all
Roman history were getting illuminated for him in such a way that they
would never grow dim.
But at first the others felt sensibly the change from dear, familiar
little Florence. Rome is so vast in her history, legend, and romance!
The city was oppressive at near sight.
"Shall we ever really know anything about it all?" asked the girls of
each other. Even Miss Sherman, who had been able to get a room in a
small hotel close by, and so was still their constant companion, wore a
little troubled air now and then, as if there were something she ought
to do and did not know how to set about it.
They drove all over the city; saw its ancient ruins--the Colosseum, the
Forums, the Palatine Hill, the Baths of Agrippa, Caracalla, Titus, and
Diocletian; visited the Pantheon, Castle of St. Angelo, and many of the
most important churches. They drove outside the walls on the Via Appia,
and saw all the many interesting things by the way. They sought all the
best points of view from which they could look out over the great city.
One afternoon they were all together on the wide piazza in front of San
Pietro in Montorio, which commands a very wide outlook. Here, after
having studied the location of chief points of interest, they gave
themselves up to the delight of a superb sunset view. As they lingered
before again taking their carriages, Malcom told some of his morning
experiences, and Barbara wistfully said:--
"I wonder if we ought not to begin some definite study of Roman history
and the old ruins. Betty and I have taken some books from the library in
Piazza di Spagna, and are reading hard an hour or two every day, but it
gives me a restless feeling to know that there is so much all about me
that I do not understand," and she looked inquiringly at Mr. Sumner.
"Robert and I have talked over this very thing," replied Mrs. Douglas.
"Shall I tell them what we think?" she asked her brother, as he rather
abruptly turned away. On his assent she continued:--
"It is a familiar question, since I very plainly remember hearing my
father and mother talk of it when I was your age, and Robert was but a
lad. My father said it would take a lifetime of patient study to learn
thoroughly all that can to-day be learned of what we call ancient
Rome--the Rome of the C�sars; and how many Romes existed before that, of
which we can know nothing, save through legend and tradition! 'Now,
will it not be best,' he asked, 'that we read all we can of legend and
the chief points of Roman history up to the present time, so that the
subject of Rome get into our minds and hearts; and then try to absorb
all we can of the spirit of both past and present, so that we shall know
Rome even though we have not tried to find out all about her? We cannot
accomplish the latter, and if we try I fear we shall miss everything.'
My mother agreed fully with him. And so, many evenings at home; father
would read to us pathetic legends and stirring tales of ancient Roman
life; and we would often go and sit amidst the earth-covered ruins on
the Palatine. Here, children, I have heard your own dear father more
than once repeat, as only he could, Byron's graphic lines:--
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