CHAPTER LXIV.
"Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male."
—Dante: Il Purgatorio.
It was not many days after her mother's arrival that Gwendolen would consent to remain at Genoa. Her desire to get away from that gem of the sea, helped to rally her strength and courage. For what place, though it were the flowery vale of Enna, may not the inward sense turn into a circle of punishment where the flowers are no better than a crop of flame-tongues burning the soles of our feet?
"I shall never like to see the Mediterranean again," said Gwendolen to her mother, who thought that she quite understood her child's feeling—even in her tacit prohibition of any express reference to her late husband.
Mrs Davilow, indeed, though compelled formally to regard this time as one of severe calamity, was
