Rowland then recognized Christina Light.

He was stupefied: had she suddenly embraced the Catholic faith?
It was but a few weeks before that she had treated him to a passionate profession of indifference.

Had she entered the church to put herself en regle with what was expected of a Princess Casamassima?
While Rowland was mentally asking these questions she was approaching him and his friends, on her way to the great altar.

At first she did not perceive them.
Mary Garland had been gazing at her.

"You told me," she said gently, to Rowland, "that Rome contained some of the most beautiful things in the world.