"And then the earth and the roses smelt so sweet that I stayed here.

Did you want me, mother ?" "I always like to know where you are." She passed her arm through his with a loving pressure, and looked out of the window with him.

The villa stood on the slope of the Janiculum, close to the Corsini gardens.
"Do I run after you too much ?" the mother asked presently, as if she knew the answer.

"Now that you are growing up, do I make you feel as if you were still a little boy?
You are nearly nineteen, you know! I suppose I ought to treat you like a man." Marcello laughed, and his hand slipped into hers with an almost childish and nestling movement.
"You have made a man of me," he answered.
Had she?
A shadow of doubt crossed her thoughtful face as she glanced at his.

He was so different from other young men of his age, so delicately nurtured, so very gentle; there was the radiance of maidenly innocence in his look, and she was afraid that he might be more like a girl than a man almost grown.
"I have done my best," she said.