s the
matter as Naples burst upon her the moment she put her head above the
companion-way where he was waiting for her.

"Oh--look at it," she gasped.

"Yes, isn't it?" he said, waving his arm as if he were responsible for
Naples. "Look at the jolly old bonfire."

All round, in the brilliant blue waters of the Bay, ships lay as if
asleep; a few little tugs fussed nervously, a few little boats laden
brilliantly with fruit and vegetables glided along as though they were
content to reach somewhere quite near by to-morrow or the day after.
There was a cloud over the grey town at the foot of Vesuvius; it looked
like winding sheets about the dead; it reminded Marcella insensibly of
Lashnagar as she saw the mist and smoke wraiths mingle grey and white,
rising from fissures, creeping along gullies until they formed a wreath
at the crest of the volcano through which a thin needle of yellower
smoke was rising straight as a pinnacle through the windless air.

"Does it ever do things now?" she asked rather breathlessly.

"Oh yes. Listen!" She heard faint reports like distant small guns being
fired. "With any luck it'll give us a bit of a Crystal Palace Bank
Holiday exploit to-night--we sail at midnight, you know. It will be
rather gorgeous if the old bonfire will oblige. Red fires, white and
silver moonlight--why Naples is making me get poetical," he added,
stopping short.

People began to come on deck: the schoolmaster walked along, his finger
in between two pages of a Baedeker in which he was going to count off
the items of interest he encountered.

"Good morning, Miss Lashcairn!" he said with a smile. "See Naples and
die!"

"Oh no--it's too beautiful!" she said quickly. Louis edged her along the
deck as a little clatter of church bells pealed from the many spires
rising above the tall brown houses of the town. A motor-launch
chuff-chuffed out from the quay, flying the yellow flag.

"Port doctor," he informed her. "If he gives us a clean bill we'll be
ashore the minute breakfast's over. And I say, Marcella, let me
_implore_ you not to have Jimmy or schoolmasters in attendance. This is
_my_ show."

She smiled at him and turned to watch three boys scrambling up the
ladder after the port doctor, carrying great baskets of grapes and
flowers and oranges.

"I'm going to buy you some grapes--those whopping big black ones. It
seems the obvious thing to do in Naples, doesn't it? Oh, by the way, I
must pay a visit to the Ban