238 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
Then came prettier villages and whiter roads, and the vine grew taller ; the sun was more powerful ; the train was running into summer weather.
At Turin the little party breakfasted, and Philip delighted them with his sketches. From Turin the country was green with tall grass and yellow with mustard in bloom. There were miles of pollard willows, and the meadows were white with daisies. There were acres of green wheat, and towns with red roofs, and in the distance still marched the everlasting hills, white at their summits, a blue haze in their valleys. There were wayside stations with red- capped officials, and fields yellow with dandelion. Then came signs of an approach to some large city ; carts and waggons on the highway ; a countryman with greyhounds in a leash, men and women in the fields, picturesque in form and color, the women suggesting Lancashire in their handkerchief head-dresses ; but there were oxen yoked to the plough to take away the English reminiscences. Pre- sently the train pulled up at Milan ; and it was summer, for not only had the locomotive run out of Paris into the city of La Scala and the famous Cathedral, but it had run out of April into May ; it was May day, and it looked May Day, and was perfumed as May Day should be.
Walter Milbanke had timed their arrival and made his arrangements accordingly. It was the dinner hour at the Grand Hotel Continental, a fine new house with a pic- turesque courtyard, courteous officials and the electric light. After dinner, Walter and Philip smoked, while the dear girls, as Walter called them, went through the artist's scrapbook, and traveled the pleasant day over again.
Looking out into the street beneath their open windows, attracted by a marching band of vocalists, they found that the wedding party of a popular workman was being escorted home by a company of friends, who were singing as they went, which led to a chat upon wedding customs.
