Whom God Hath Joined: A Question of Marriage

by Fergus Hume

"'Tis an Italian town,

Almost a city yet not metropolitan wholly.

Houses red-roofed, white-walled, lofty in height with iron balconies,

Narrow and twisted the streets, with rough irregular pavements:

Below are the shops with their awnings o'er windows, filled with gaudy wares we see not in England,

Amid which stand the shop-keepers, shrill-voiced, thievish, voluble and smiling.

'Questo è troopo? 'Non e molto'--question and answer and question once more,

While in the burning sunshine, in nooks, in corners, in courts, in door-ways,

Lie the dark shadows, fit for the hiding of lovers, of bravos, of damsels and men-at-arms ruffianly."

Relations were rather strained between Eustace and his young friend, the reason being as usual to be found in the unconquerable selfishness of the former. With his habitual egotism, Gartney insisted that the lad whom he had chosen for a friend should attend solely to him, watch his every action with dog-like fidelity, and have nothing to do with the rest of the world.