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but little to interest the traveller. Its being the only seaport of
Tuscany made it a city of some importance, and some of its expor-
tations are sculptured marbles. My father bought three white
marble mantles there in 1848 which arrived safely home, and
which exhibit excellence of design as well as skilled labor. A
comparison of these with similar work done elsewhere, shows the reason why
the Italians monopolised for years the industry of making at
moderate prices all kinds of work in marble, and that these be-
came in time to be classed among the exports of the country.
The little steamer for Genoa and Marseilles left du-
ring the afternoon of my second day. I soon scraped acquaintance
on board with a fellow countryman whom I had noticed at the
hotel in Florence. He was a Virginian, and was returning from
China where he arrived in a sailing vessel going around the
Cape of Good Hope, a couple of months previously. He was then
going back to New York via Paris. An amusing incident occur-
red to him while on board. When the new passengers were arriv-
ing at Genoa, Mr Josiah Quincy of Boston, with his wife and
daughter, were among them. The latter was a lady over whose head
from twenty five to thirty summers had passed, and being neither
beautiful nor an heiress, she probably had but few interested ad-
mirers among the single ones of the other sex. This apparently made
her ready to enter into conversation without any shyness with any-
one who was bold enough to venture without an introduction, and
my newly made acquaintance (whose name has escaped me) not
only was so fortunate as to be soon engaged in conversation with
her, but; a few moments after, the two were walking arm in arm
as if they had known each other all their lives. I
was interested to observe this little episode, but was surprised at
its short duration, the lady having resumed her seat on deck and
the gentleman having disappeared in some other direction, in
about ten minutes after the walking exercise had commenced.
I gave the subject no further thought at the time and made
no inquiries; but the explanation came unsolicited. While we were
together at Marseilles, my Virginian, who fancied that I had not
noticed the shortness of his intercourse with Miss Quincy, told me
that she, in alluding to the many Americans travelling
all over Europe, said that she utterly abhorred all of her country
people who were slaveowners, and expressed the hope that although
from a slave State, he was not one of the fraternity. To this question
he very naturally replied truthfully, and without any feeling that
he was guilty of anything wrong, that he owned two old people
who were his slaves at his old home in Virginia. Upon giving
this simple and unequivocal reply the arm of his companion began
immediately to loosen its hold upon his own, and it was evident that
his candor would result in ending the little walk on the deck.
This soon after occurred by her arm dropping to her side and she walked
away to a seat where I had observed her
Mr Quincy was a
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