r deck, then Nan declared that they were about to see the real Lake
of Como. It was observed that the young sailor glanced once or twice
rather anxiously at the sky and the seething clouds.

Well, they sailed away down through this stretch of pallid green water,
that was here and there ruffled with wind, and here and there smooth
enough to reflect the silver-gray sky; and they called at successive
little villages; and they began to be anxious about a certain banking
up of purple clouds in the south-west. They forgot about the eternal
summer, and got out their waterproofs. They were glad to find
themselves drawing near to Bellagio, and its big hotels, and villas,
and terraced gardens. The wind had risen; the driven green water was
here and there hissing white; and just as they were landing, a pink
flash of lightning darted across that dense wall of purple cloud, and
there was a long and reverberating rattle of thunder.

'It seems to me we have just got in in time,' said Frank King in the
hall of the hotel.

The storm increased in fury. The girls could scarcely dress for dinner
through being attracted to the window by the witches' cantrips outside.
The thunder blackness in the south-west had deepened; the wind was
whirling by great masses of vapour; the water was springing high along
the terraces; and the trees in the terraced gardens were blown this way
and that, even though their branches were heavy with rain. Then it was
that Edith Beresford said--

'Nan, you ought to persuade Lieutenant King to stay over another day.
He hasn't seen Como. This isn't Como.'

'I?' said Nan, sharply. 'What have I to do with it? He can go or stay
as he pleases.'

'Besides,' continued Edith, 'in consequence of this _tempo cattivo_----'

'I suppose that means weather that rains cats and dogs,' said Nan,
whose anger was of the briefest duration.

'----the grand _Serenata_ is put off till to-morrow night. Now he
ought to stay and see the illuminations of the boats.'

'The illuminations,' said Nan. 'I should think he had something else
to think of.'

Nevertheless, when, at dinner, Miss Edith was good enough to put these
considerations before Lieutenant King, he seemed very anxious to
assent, and he at once called for a time-table; and eventually made out
that by taking the night train somewhere or other, he could remain at
Bellagio over the next day. And he was rewarded, so far as the weather
went. The morning was quite