Converse, Florence. Sphinx (New York: Dutton, c1931) 311 p.

Among a group of tourists in Italy is a “Carnegie librarian from Ohio” named Miss Amy Longstreet.

… though she had never been youthful, was still young, and—was she pretty? … dark, reserved; with a prim mouth. Never been kissed. (p. 23).

Miss Longstreet insists on seeing everything mentioned in any guidebook. She visits the great libraries.

All the attendants in all the great libraries of Florence, the Laurentian, the library of San Marco, the Riccardiana, the Nazionale, knew that Miss Longstreet was a librarian and they were all very polite to her. But she wasn't used to feeling at a disadvantage in a library. She didn't like it. The Nazionale, not yet moved from its old place in the loggie degli Uffizi, was the only one in which she felt at all at home with the cataloguing, and even there she found room for improvement. (p. 129).