They were still within the precincts of the house, still in
possession of that wonderful singing, although almost in the open
country, with a great view of the Campagna before them, and the hills
beyond. The orchard or meadow, through which their path lay, was
already gray with twilight, though the western sky, where the greater
stars were visible, was still afloat in crimson splendour. The
colour of all earthly things seemed repressed by the contrast, yet
with a sense of great richness lingering in their shadows. At that
moment the voice of the singers, a "voice of joy and health,"
concentrated itself with solemn antistrophic movement, into an
evening, or "candle" hymn.

"Hail! Heavenly Light, from his pure glory poured,
Who is the Almighty Father, heavenly, blest:--
Worthiest art Thou, at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue."--

[105] It was like the evening itself made audible, its hopes and
fears, with the stars shining in the midst of it. Half above, half
below the level white mist, dividing the light from the darkness,
came now the mistress of this place, the wealthy Roman matron, left
early a widow a few years before, by Cecilius "Confessor and Saint."
With a certain antique severity in the gathering of the long mantle,
and with coif or veil folded decorously below the chin, "gray within
gray," to the mind of Marius her temperate beauty brought
reminiscences of the serious and virile character of the best female
statuary of Greece. Quite foreign, however, to any Greek statuary
was the expression of pathetic care, with which she carried a little
child at rest in her arms. Another, a year or two older, walked
beside, the fingers of one hand within her girdle. She paused for a