"But, Maria, it was only sixteen cents that we paid, and look at those flowers! There are at least half a bushel of them."
"Sixteen cents for garbage like that! The Signorina would better let me make her bargains for her. Già! Già! No Italian lady would have paid more than eleven sous for such useless roba. It is evident that the Signorina's countrymen eat gold when at home, they think so little of casting it away!"
Altogether, what with the comfort and quiet of this little home, the numberless delightful things that there were to do and to see, and Viessieux's great library, from which they could draw books at will to make the doing and seeing more intelligible, the month at Florence passed only too quickly, and was one of the times to which they afterward looked back with most pleasure. Amy grew steadily stronger, and the freedom from anxiety about her after their long strain of apprehension was restful and healing beyond expression to both mind and body.
