Through an open gate they could see the old, narrow streets and high houses. In the beginning there had been but a castle here, around which the town had grown. Now, in modern times, it had spread all over the hill, or perhaps had spread up from the little mill that had had its first humble beginning on the stream below.
"I seem to be looking at history as it is made," said Irma.
"That's a fine way of putting it," cried Richard.
"Irma sees things exactly as they are," added Uncle Jim.
Soon they had descended the other side of the high hill they had so lately mounted. Ahead of them, and still a good distance away, was another hill with a coronet of slender towers.
"San Gimignano!" exclaimed Richard.
"I have never seen it before, but I know it from the pictures. Isn't it picturesque? I wanted to surprise you, Ellen, so I have said hardly anything to you about it. But you all know," and he included Uncle Jim and Irma in his remarks, "that you are soon to be inside of the one town in Italy that has kept its old mediæval towers. If the whole town is as quaint as the towers, you will thank me for bringing you here."
"We thank you now," said Uncle Jim.
"Why is the carriage ahead waiting for us?" asked Ellen.