CHAPTER XV.
It was in the spring of the year 1860 that I first became acquainted with "George Eliot" and G H.Lewes in Florence.

But it was during their second visit to Italy in 1861 that I saw a good deal more of them.

It was in that year, towards the end of May, that I succeeded in persuading them to accompany me in a visit to the two celebrated Tuscan monasteries of Camaldoli and La Vernia.

I had visited both on more than one occasion previously--once with a large and very merry party of both sexes, of whom Colley Grattan was one--but the excursion made in company with G.H.Lewes and George Eliot was another-guess sort of treat, and the days devoted to it stand out in high relief in my memory as some of the most memorable in my life.
They were anxious to be moving northwards from Florence, and I had some difficulty in persuading them to undertake the expedition.

A certain weight of responsibility, therefore, lay on me--that folks whose days were so sure of being turned to good profit, should not by my fault be led to waste any of them.