“Darling, I do not know how to say what I wish.  But look, darling, look again.  What you see there is unique in the world.  Nature is nowhere else so subtle, elegant, and fine.  The god who made the hills of Florence was an artist.  Oh, he was a jeweller, an engraver, a sculptor, a bronze-founder, and a painter; he was a Florentine.  He did nothing else in the world, darling.  The rest was made by a hand less delicate, whose work was less perfect.  How can you think that that violet hill of San Miniato, so firm and so pure in relief, was made by the author of Mont Blanc?  It is not possible.  This landscape has the beauty of an antique medal and of a precious painting.  It is a perfect and measured work of art.  And here is another thing that I do not know how to say, that I can not even understand, but which is a real thing.  In this country I feel—­and you will feel as I do, darling—­half alive and half dead; in a condition which is sad, noble, and very sweet.  Look, look again; you will realize the melancholy of those hills that surround Florence, and see a delicious sadness ascend from the land of the dead.”

The sun was low over the horizon.  The bright points of the mountain-peaks faded one by one, while the clouds inflamed the sky.  Madame Marmet sneezed.

Miss Bell sent for some shawls, and warned the French women that the evenings were fresh and that the night-air was dangerous.

Then suddenly she said: 

“Darling, you know Monsieur Jacques Dechartre?  Well, he wrote to me that he would be at Florence next week.  I am glad Monsieur Jacques Dechartre is to meet you in our city.  He will accompany us to the churches and to the museums, and he will be a good guide.  He understands beautiful things, because he loves them.  And he has an exquisite talent as a sculptor.  His figures in medallions are admired more in England than in France.  Oh, I am so glad Monsieur Jacques Dechartre and you are to meet at Florence, darling!”

CHAPTER IX

CHOULETTE FINDS A NEW FRIEND

She next day, as they were traversing the square where are planted, in imitation of antique amphitheatres, two marble pillars, Madame Marmet said to the Countess Martin: 

“I think I see Monsieur Choulette.”

Seated in a shoemaker’s shop, his pipe in his hand, Choulette was making rhythmic gestures, and appeared to be reciting verses.  The Florentine cobbler listened with a kind smile.  He was a little, bald man, and represented one of the types familiar to Flemish painters.  On a table, among wooden lasts, nails, leather, and wax, a basilic plant displayed its round green head.  A sparrow, lacking a leg, which had been replaced by a match, hopped on the old man’s shoulder and head.

Madame Martin, amused by this spectacle, called Choulette from the threshold.  He was softly humming a tune, and she asked him why he had not gone with her to visit the Spanish chapel.