She has all the practical sense of the north; and all the subtlety of the south.

She is one of the people who make me feel that Italy and England have somehow mysterious affinities that will work themselves out in history.

It seems to me that I could understand all her thoughts--and she mine--if it were worth her while.

She is a modern of the moderns; and yet there is in her some of the oldest stuff in the world.

She belongs, it is true, to a nation in the making--but that nation, in its earlier forms, has already carried the whole weight of European history!' And Lucy, looking up to the warm, kind face, felt vaguely comforted and calmed by its mere presence.