When the mind is in a state of solicitude on subjects connected with sickness and death, the well-disposed seldom attempt to fly from the contemplation of those things immediately connected with them, or seek consolation from looking beyond them. "Let us go to the Campo Santo to-day," said Mary; "I had rather contemplate among the tombs than visit the churches, fine as the music is, because I cannot think as I wish to do when so many things are going on which divert my attention."
To this magnificent edifice, wherein repose the ashes of the great during more than six hundred years, they therefore drove; and, although they had been there very often already, found much that could not fail to charm and interest them in the sombre and splendid monuments, the inscriptions, which were condensed histories of those who slept within them, or those admirable, though faded frescoes, which have been the wonder of ages. There were few persons within at the time, it being the general hour for mass; but two ladies having entered just before them, attracted their attention, in consequence of being, like themselves, unaccompanied by a gentleman, from which it was concluded they were regular inhabitants of Pisa.
Mary did not pay them any particular attention beyond noticing that the younger was a beautiful olive-complexioned woman about thirty, and her
