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Chapter 17: closing scenes.
Although
Mrs. Story once read the certificate of the marriage of her friends, and had it long in her possession, she did not fix the date of it in her memory, and this will probably remain forever unknown.
Their child was born September 5, 1848; and the mother was compelled, in order to disarm suspicion and to earn money, to be alternately at
Rieti and in
Rome.
Finally she was unable to leave
Rome, because of the siege; and after returning to
Rieti, she wrote this letter to
Mr. Cass, in which she has made an evident effort to describe what is around her, and not to dwell on her own great anxieties.
Dear
Mr. Cass,--I seem to have arrived in a different world, since passing the mountains.
This little red-brown nest, which those we call the aborigines of
Italy made long before
Rome was, lies tranquil amid the net-work of vineyards, its casinos and convents gleam pleasantly from the hillsides, the dirt accumulates undisturbed in its streets, and pigs and children wallow in it, while Madonna-veiled, bare-legged women twirl the distaff at every door and window, happy, if so they can
