"
Isabel stared; the idea of letting shops was new to her. "I hope
they won't pull it down," she said; "I'm extremely fond of it."
"I don't see what makes you fond of it; your father died here."
"Yes, but I don't dislike it for that," the girl rather strangely
returned. "I like places in which things have happened- even if
they're sad things. A great many people have died here; the place
has been full of life."
"Is that what you call being full of life?"
"I mean full of experience- of people's feelings and sorrows. And
not of their sorrows only, for I've been very happy here as a child."
"You should go to Florence if you like houses in which things have
happened- especially deaths. I live in an old palace in which three
people have been murdered; three that were known and I don't know
how many more besides."
"In an old palace?" Isabel repeated.
"Yes, my dear; a very different affair from this. This is very
bourgeois."
Isabel felt some emotion, for she had always thought highly of her
grandmother's house. But the emotion was of a kind which led her to
say: "I should like very much to go to Florence."
"Well, if you'll be very good, and do everything I tell you I'll
take you there," Mrs.
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