Here we look out at the same
Tivoli and the same Praeneste glittering in the sunshine, embowered
among the far-off valleys, which were dear to them; and the blue
mountains have not crumbled away into ruins. Within Rome itself we can
see nothing as they saw it.
Our party consisted of some dozen or fifteen persons, and, as a hamper
with luncheon in it had been left on the grassy slope at the base of
the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the expedition had in it something of the
nature of a picnic. Mrs. Talboys was of course with us, and Ida Talboys.
O'Brien also was there. The hamper had been prepared in Mrs. Mackinnon's
room under the immediate eye of Mackinnon himself, and they therefore
were regarded as the dominant spirits of the party. My wife was leagued
with Mrs. Mackinnon, as was usually the case; and there seemed to be a
general opinion, among those who were closely in confidence together,
that something would happen in the O'Brien-Talboys matter. The two had
been inseparable on the previous evening, for Mrs. Talboys had been
urging on the young Irishman her counsels respecting his domestic
troubles. Sir Cresswell Cresswell, she had told him, was his refuge.
"Why should his soul submit to bonds which the world had now declared to
be intolerable? Divorce was not now the privilege of the dissolute rich.
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