They were all at Charing Cross to see Lilia off⁠—Philip, Harriet, Irma, Mrs. Herriton herself. Even Mrs. Theobald, squired by Mr. Kingcroft, had braved the journey from Yorkshire to bid her only daugh...

When the bewildered tourist alights at the station of Monteriano, he finds himself in the middle of the country. There are a few houses round the railway, and many more dotted over the plain and the s...

Opposite the Volterra gate of Monteriano, outside the city, is a very respectable whitewashed mud wall, with a coping of red crinkled tiles to keep it from dissolution. It would suggest a gentleman’s ...

The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say “yesterday I was happy, today I am not.” At no one moment did Lilia realize that her marriage was a failure; yet during the summer ...

At the time of Lilia’s death Philip Herriton was just twenty-four years of age⁠—indeed the news reached Sawston on his birthday. He was a tall, weakly built young man, whose clothes had to be judiciou...

Italy, Philip had always maintained, is only her true self in the height of the summer, when the tourists have left her, and her soul awakes under the beams of a vertical sun. He now had every opportu...

At about nine o’clock next morning Perfetta went out onto the loggia, not to look at the view, but to throw some dirty water at it. “Scusi tanto!” she wailed, for the water spattered a tall young lady...

“Mad!” screamed Harriet⁠—“absolutely stark, staring, raving mad!” Philip judged it better not to contradict her. “What’s she here for? Answer me that. What’s she doing in Monteriano in August? Why isn...

The details of Harriet’s crime were never known. In her illness she spoke more of the inlaid box that she lent to Lilia⁠—lent, not given⁠—than of recent troubles. It was clear that she had gone prepar...

“He will have to marry her,” said Philip. “I heard from him this morning, just as we left Milan. He finds he has gone too far to back out. It would be expensive. I don’t know how much he minds⁠—not as...