It was even no small joy to her to find that he
knew so much more about art and its message than she did; that she
could look up to his judgment, confide in his opinion, see the
truth of his criticism, profit much by his instruction. So well
did she use those seven short days, indeed, that she came to
Florence with Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, mere names;
and she went away from it feeling that she had made them real
friends and possessions for a life-time.
So the hours whirled fast in those enchanted halls, and Herminia's
soul was enriched by new tastes and new interests. O towers of
fretted stone! O jasper and porphyry! Her very state of health
made her more susceptible than usual to fresh impressions, and drew
Alan at the same time every day into closer union with her. For
was not the young life now quickening within her half his and half
hers, and did it not seem to make the father by reflex nearer and
dearer to her? Surely the child that was nurtured, unborn, on
those marble colonnades and those placid Saint Catherines must draw
in with each pulse of its antenatal nutriment some tincture of
beauty, of freedom, of culture! So Herminia thought to herself as
she lay awake at night and looked out of the window from the
curtains of her bed at the boundless dome and the tall campanile
gleaming white in the moonlight.
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