tel not only all sorts of products of a high
civilisation, but even people who were speaking the familiar English
tongue.

There was a telegram addressed 'Lieutenant F. H. King, R.N.,' in the
case in the bureau; when Frank King had got it out and read it he was
silent for a second or two.

'I hope there is no bad news,' said Miss Beresford, in a kindly way.
She was not a very sympathetic person; but Frank King had brightened up
their tour during these last two days, and she was in a measure
grateful to him.

'No,' he said, absently. 'Oh no, not bad news. The telegram is from
the officer I left in charge of the _Fly-by-Night_; I rather think that
I shall be setting out for home again in a couple of days.'

'Oh, I am sorry for that,' she said, quite naturally.

'You go on again to-morrow, Miss Beresford?'

'We were proposing to do so.'

'And where do you think of going to when you get to Lake Como?'

'Bellagio, most probably.'

'Oh, well, I will go with you as far as Bellagio, if I may,' he said,
somewhat thoughtfully.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SERENATA.

Next morning also he was preoccupied and anxious, insomuch that even
Nan noticed it, and good-naturedly hoped he had had no bad news. He
started somewhat.

'No, oh no,' he said. 'Only the telegram I got last night makes it
necessary for me to start for home to-morrow.'

'Then, at least,' said Nan cheerfully, 'you will see Lake Como before
you go.'

Her eldest sister smiled in her superior way.

'Nan's head is full of romance,' she said. 'She expects to see the
Como of the print-shops: don't you, Nan? Blue water and golden boats,
and pink hills, and Claude Melnotte's castle lifting its--whatever was
it?--to eternal summer. I am afraid the quotation is not quite
correct.'

And the truth was that, despite this warning, Nan did seem somewhat
disappointed, when, after hours of rattling and splashing along a muddy
road, they came upon a stretch of dirty, chalky-green water that in a
manner mirrored the gray and barren crags above it.

'That isn't Como!' cried Nan. 'It can't be.'

'Oh, but it is,' Miss Beresford said, laughing. 'At least it's the
upper end of it.'

But Nan would not believe it; and when at last they reached Colico, and
fought their way through the crowd of swarthy good-for-nothings who
strove to attach themselves to every scrap of luggage, and when they
had got on board the steamer and secured commanding positions on the
uppe