Page:Her Roman Lover (Frothingham, 1911).djvu/54

 that one lived between the cradle and the grave? Men had loved her, for she had the power which is often found in women who are as quick to respond with nerves and imagination as they are slow to yield those depths of being which must be reached before love can take possession; but she found herself now regretting a coolness and fastidiousness of temperament which had made it impossible to yield, and it seemed both sad and ridiculous that life should send her only men whom she could not love.

On that same morning Gino Curatulo was also walking in the garden, and he met her face to face just by the fountain which is called the Fountain of the Horses, because of the equine heads which stand at the corners of its wide basin.

A broad and empty avenue stretched before and behind them, and on both sides paths led away into the shade of ilex trees,—a dense, vital, and almost resilient shade, unlike any other. The grave-like chill that lives in the shadows of semi-tropical countries was there also, and in the chill and darkness were more fountains, dimly seen, and a gray-white temple.

Anne was but vaguely conscious of these things as she stood by the fountain in the wide spaces of clear sunshine, and greeted the Italian, who stood