SNOWDROPS AND MAIDENLY DELIGHTS It being still considerably earlier than the period at which artists and tourists are accustomed to assemble in Rome, the sculptor and Hilda found themselves comparatively alone there.

The dense mass of native Roman life, in the midst of which they were, served to press them near one another.

It was as if they had been thrown together on a desert island.

Or they seemed to have wandered, by some strange chance, out of the common world, and encountered each other in a depopulated city, where there were streets of lonely palaces, and unreckonable treasures of beautiful and admirable things, of which they two became the sole inheritors.
In such circumstances, Hilda's gentle reserve must have been stronger than her kindly disposition permitted, if the friendship between Kenyon and herself had not grown as warm as a maiden's friendship can ever be, without absolutely and avowedly blooming into love.

On the sculptor's side, the amaranthine flower was already in full blow.