down; and on the later occasions at least, circumstances might easily
have combined to prevent their departure for an indefinite time. He
became, indeed, so attached to Gressoney, with its beautiful outlook
upon Monte Rosa, that nothing I believe would have hindered his
returning, or at least contemplating a return to it, but the great
fatigue to his sister of the mule ride up the mountain, by a path which
made walking, wherever possible, the easier course. They did walk _down_
it in the early October of 1885, and completed the hard seven hours'
trudge to San Martino d'Aosta, without an atom of refreshment or a
minute's rest.

One of the great attractions of Saint-Pierre was the vicinity of the
Grande Chartreuse, to which Mr. Browning made frequent expeditions,
staying there through the night in order to hear the midnight mass. Miss
Browning also once attempted the visit, but was not allowed to enter the
monastery. She slept in the adjoining convent.

The brother and sister were again at the Universo in 1879, 1880, and
1881; but the crash was rapidly approaching, and soon afterwards it
came. The old Palazzo passed into other hands, and after a short period
of private ownership was consigned to the purposes of an Art Gallery.

In 1880, however, they had been introduced by Mrs. Story to an American
resident, Mrs. Arthur Bronson, and entered into most friendly
relations with her; and when, after a year's interval, they were again
contemplating an autumn in Venice, she placed at their disposal a suite
of rooms in the Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati, which formed a supplement
to her own house--making the offer with a kindly urgency which forbade
all thought of declining it. They inhabited these for a second time in
1885, keeping house for themselves in the simple but comfortable foreign