They had come down through France to Genoa and Milan, had spent a fortnight in Venice and another in Florence, and had now been a month in Rome.

Roderick had said that he meant to spend three months in simply looking, absorbing, and reflecting, without putting pencil to paper.

He looked indefatigably, and certainly saw great things--things greater, doubtless, at times, than the intentions of the artist.

And yet he made few false steps and wasted little time in theories of what he ought to like and to dislike.

He judged instinctively and passionately, but never vulgarly.