"Yes," answered Mrs. Douglas. "We must do all we can for them that this
visit to the Old World shall be as truly a means of culture as their
parents desire. You know I wrote you that it is difficult for the
Doctor to afford it, but that he felt so earnestly the good that such an
opportunity must bring his girls that he could not bear to refuse it. As
for me, I love Barbara and Betty dearly and delight to care for them as
for my own. Their influence is wholesome, and our little Margery loves
them as if they were indeed sisters. I have thought much about what is
best for all our young people to do during the coming months in Italy.
Of course everything they see and hear will be an education, but I think
we ought to have some definite plan for certainly a portion of their
time. I have wished to talk to you about it.

"'Help my daughters to study,' said Dr. Burnett, and his feeling has
given me new thoughts regarding my own children. Now there is one great
field of study into which one can enter in this country as nowhere
else--and this is art. Especially in Florence is the world of Italian
painting opened before us--its beginnings and growth. Ought we not to
put all of them, Barbara, Bettina, Malcom, and Margery into the most
favorable conditions for entering upon the study of this great subject,
which may prove a source of so much enjoyment and culture all their
lives? I well remember my own wonder and pleasure when, years ago, our
dear mother called my attention to it; and how much it has been to both
you and me! You can help me here, Robert, for this is so much a part of
your own life."

"I will think it all over, sister, and we will see what we can do. As
for me, I am too happy just now in having you and the children with me
to give thought to anything else. So talk to me to-day of nothing but
your own dear selves."