AS THE Countess Gemini was not acquainted with the
ancient monuments Isabel occasionally offered to introduce
her to these interesting relics and to give their afternoon drive
an antiquarian aim. The Countess, who profesed to think her
sister-in-law a prodigy of learning, never made an objection,
and gazed at masses of Roman brickwork as patiently as if
they had been mounds of modern drapery. [...]