Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/195

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ITALY.
177

while her eye roved fondly from a very brown Capuchin monk to a squad of Bersaglieri trotting by with jaunty cock's feathers dancing in the wind, muskets gleaming, and trim boots skipping through the mud with martial regularity.

" When I get the contents of my head sorted out, I shall doubtless rejoice that I have seen Rome; but just now all that I can clearly recall are the three facts that the Pope had a fit, our dear man Romeo got very tipsy one night, and that we went to see the Sistine Chapel the day the eclipse made it as dark as a pocket. Yes," continued Lavinia, with an air of decision, "I am glad to have seen this classical cesspool, and still more glad to have got out of it alive," she added, sniffing the air from the mountains, as if the odor of sanctity which pervaded the holy city did not suit her.

It blew great guns up at Albano, and the society consisted chiefly of donkeys. But the ladies enjoyed themselves nevertheless, and felt better and better every day; for early hours, much exercise, and no aesthetic tea, soon set them up after the dissipation of the winter.

Three pleasing events diversified their stay. The

12