becoming to you--but I mean
as a question of light. Would you prefer a dinner by moonlight on the
rocks of Tragara with a couple of mandolins in the distance, or would
you like better a party in the hotel gardens with an illumination of
paper lanterns? It is a most important question, I assure you, and must
be decided very quickly, because the moon is full to-morrow."

"What a ridiculous question!" exclaimed Beatrice, laughing again.

"Why ridiculous?"

"Because you ought to know the answer well enough. Imagine comparing the
moon with Chinese lanterns!"

"Your mother prefers the latter."

"Oh, mamma--of course! She is so practical. She would prefer carriage
lamps on the trees--gas if possible! When are we going to Tragara? Where
is it? Which boat shall we take? Oh, it is too delightful! Can we not go
to-night?"

"We can do anything which Donna Beatrice likes," answered San Miniato.
"But if you will listen to me, I will explain why to-morrow would be
better. In the first place, we have dined once this evening, so that we
could not dine again."

"We could call it supper," suggested Beatrice.

"Of course we could, if we could eat it at all. But it is also ten
o'clock, and we could not get to Tragara before one or two in the
morning. Lastly, your mother would not go."

"Will she go to-morrow?" asked Beatrice with sudden anxiety. "Have you
asked her?"

"She will go," answered San Miniato confidently. "We must make her
comfortable. That is the principal thing."

"Yes. She shall have her maid and we must take a chair for her to sit
in, and another to carry her, and two porters, and a lamp, and a table,
and a servant to wait on her. And she will want champagne, well iced,
and a carpet for her feet, and a screen to keep the wind from her, if
there is any, and several more things which I shall remember. But I know
all about it, for we once made a little excursion from Taormina and
dined out of doors, and I know exactly what she wants."

"Very well, she shall have everything," said San Miniato smiling at the
catalogue of the Marchesa's wants. "If she will only go, we will do all
we can."

"When it is time, let the two porters come in here with the chair and
take her away," answered Beatrice. "Dear mamma! She will be much too
lazy to resist. What fun it will be!"

And everything was done as Beatrice had wished. San Miniato made a list
of things absolutely indispensable to the Marchesa. The number of
articles was