Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/174

156 or why they howled; didn't ask. Men here handsome, but rude. Women wear veils and no bonnets,—fat and ugly. Gloves very good. Arch of Peace.—More peace and less arch would be better for Italy.

"Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin.—Stiff and stupid. Can't like Raphael. Dear, pious, simple, old Fra Angelico suits me better.

"To the Public Garden with A.; saw a black ostrich with long pink legs, who pranced and looked so like an opera dancer that we sat on the fence and shrieked with laughter.

"Pavia.—To the Certosa to see the old Carthusian Convent founded in 1396; cloisters, gardens, and twenty-four little dwellings, with chapel, bedroom, parlor, and yard for each monk, who is never to speak, and comes out but once a week. A nice way for lazy men to spend their lives when there is so much work to be done for the Lord and his poor! Wanted to shake them all round, though they did look well in their gowns and cowls gliding about the dim cloisters and church. Perhaps they are kept for that purpose.

"Parma.—Dome of church frescoed by