When, on arriving
at Florence, she saw the place Rowland had brought them to in their
trouble, she had given him a look and said a few words to him that
had seemed not only a remission of guilt but a positive reward.
This happened in the court of the villa--the large gray quadrangle,
overstretched, from edge to edge of the red-tiled roof, by the soft
Italian sky. Mary had felt on the spot the sovereign charm of the
place; it was reflected in her deeply intelligent glance, and Rowland
immediately accused himself of not having done the villa justice. Miss
Garland took a mighty fancy to Florence, and used to look down wistfully
at the towered city from the windows and garden. Roderick having now no
pretext for not being her cicerone, Rowland was no longer at liberty, as
he had been in Rome, to propose frequent excursions to her. Roderick's
own invitations, however, were not frequent, and Rowland more than once
ventured to introduce her to a gallery or a church. These expeditions
were not so blissful, to his sense, as the rambles they had taken
together in Rome, for his companion only half surrendered herself to her
enjoyment, and seemed to have but a divided attention at her command.
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