ddenly away and hastened
down to the boat quay.

Like many bashful and diffident men, Loyd had a false air of coldness
and resolution, which impressed others greatly, but reacted grievously
on his own heart in moments of afterthought; and now, no sooner had
his companion gone, than he felt what a mockery it was for him to have
assumed a rigid respect for a mere boyish agreement, which lost all its
value the moment either felt it burdensome. "_I_ was not of an age to
play Mentor to _him_. It could never become me to assume the part of
a guardian. I ought to have said the bargain ceases the instant you
repudiate it. A forced companionship is mere slavery. Let us part the
good friends we met; and so on." At last he determined to sit down and
write a short note to Calvert, releasing him from his thraldom, and
giving him his full and entire liberty.

"As for myself, I will remain here so long as I stay abroad, and if I
come to the continent again, I will make for this spot as for a home:
and now for the letter."

CHAPTER IV. THE "LAGO D'ORTA."

LEAVING Loyd to compose his letter, we will follow Calvert, as, with
vigorous stroke, he rushed his light boat through the calm water,
leaving a long bright line of bubbles in his wake. Dressed in his blue
flannel shirt and white trousers, a gay bunch of roses stuck jauntily in
the side of his straw hat, there was an air of health, vigour, and dash
about him, to which his full bright eye and upturned moustache well
contributed. And, as from time to time he would rest on his oars, while
his thin skiff cleaved her way alone, his bronzed and manly face and
carelessly waving hair made up a picture of what we are proud to think
is eminently British in its character. That is to say, there was about
him much of what indicated abundance of courage, no small proportion
of personal strength, and a certain sort of recklessness, which in a
variety of situations in life is equivalent to power.

To any eye that watched him, as with scarce an effort he sent his boat
forward, while the lazy cirri of smoke that rose from his short pipe
indicated ease, there would have seemed one who was indulging in the
very fullest enjoyment of a scene second to none in Europe. You had
but to look along the shore itself to see the most gorgeous picture of
wooded islands and headlands glowing in every tint of colour from the
pure white of the oleander to the deep scarlet of the San Giuseppe,
with, in the d