r dear
cousin, what a mission you have undertaken among the savages. Own it
honestly, you never guessed the task that was before you when you came
here.'

'Oh, it's very nice savagery, all the same,' said the other, smiling
pleasantly.

'There now!' cried Kate, as she threw her hat to one side, and stood
arranging her hair before the glass. 'I make this toilet under protest, for
we are going in to luncheon, not dinner, and all the world knows, and all
the illustrated newspapers show, that people do not dress for lunch. And,
by the way, that is something you have not got in Italy. All the women
gathering together in their garden-bonnets and their morning-muslins, and
the men in their knickerbockers and their coarse tweed coats.'

'I declare I think you are in better spirits since you see these people are
not coming.'

'It is true. You have guessed it, dearest. The thought of anything
grand--as a visitor; anything that would for a moment suggest the
unpleasant question, Is this right? or, Is that usual? makes me downright
irritable. Come, are you ready? May I offer you my arm?'

And now they were at table, Kate rattling away in unwonted gaiety, and
trying to rally Nina out of her disappointment.

'I declare Nina, everything is so pretty I am ashamed to eat. Those
chickens near you are the least ornamental things I see. Cut me off a wing.
Oh, I forgot, you never acquired the barbarous art of carving.'

'I can cut this,' said Nina, drawing a dish of tongue towards her.

'What! that marvellous production like a parterre of flowers? It would be
downright profanation to destroy it.'

'Then shall I give you some of this, Kate?'

'Why, child, that is strawberry-cream. But I cannot eat all alone; do help
yourself.'

'I shall take something by-and-by.'

'What do young ladies in Italy eat when they are--no, I don't mean in
love--I shall call it--in despair?'

'Give me some of that white wine beside you. There! don't you hear a noise?
I'm certain I heard the sound of wheels.'

'Most sincerely I trust not. I wouldn't for anything these people should
break in upon us now. If my brother Dick should drop in I'd welcome him,
and he would make our little party perfect. Do you know, Nina, Dick can be
so jolly. What's that? there are voices there without.'

As she spoke the door was opened, and Walpole entered. The young girls
had but time to rise from their seats, when--they never could exactly say
how--they found themse