"Please tell us something about it, uncle," said Malcom. "I am afraid I
have not looked it up very thoroughly."

So Mr. Sumner told them many interesting things about the old city,--and
how it had figured largely in Italian history from the Punic wars soon
after Christ, down to the middle of the present century, when it finally
became a part of United Italy.

"What about the university?" queried Malcom again.

"It has had a grand reputation for about fourteen centuries, and thus
is among the most ancient existing seats of learning in Christendom.
During the Middle Ages students came to it from all parts of northern
Europe."

Bettina laughed. "I read a curious thing about it in my guide-book,"
said she. "That it has had several women professors; and one who was
very beautiful always sat behind a curtain while she delivered her
lectures. This was in the fourteenth century, I believe."

"A wise precaution," exclaimed Malcom, with a quizzical look. "Even I
sometimes forget what a pretty woman is saying, because my thoughts are
wandering from the subject to her face. And the men of those times could
not have had the constant experience we of this century in America
have."

"Don't be silly," smiled Bettina; and Mrs. Douglas, slipping her hand
through Malcom's arm, asked: "Do you see those towers?"