by Edith Wharton is a story about two well-to-do American widows who escort their unmarried daughters on a grand vacation. Alida Slade and Grace Ansley are the primary characters in Wharton's tale that incorporates love, mother/daughter relationships and sexuality into a compelling piece of literary work. The story's beginning finds the older women partaking of the glorious view of the Forum from their restaurant seats. The younger ladies, on the other hand, have announced that they plan to take an excursion without their mothers' supervis ....