epared, and it dropped on the
rock by his bare feet.

"Stupido!" laughed the girl.

"Ma, Signorina--!"

"Three!"

It had become a game between them, and continued to be a game until all
the ten cigarettes had made their journey through the air.

Vere would not let Ruffo know when a cigarette was coming, but kept him
on the alert, pretending, holding it poised above him between his finger
and thumb until even his eyes blinked from gazing upward; then dropping
it when she thought he was unprepared, or throwing it like a missile.
But she soon knew that she had found her match in the boy. And when he
caught the tenth and last cigarette in his mouth she clapped her hands,
and cried out so enthusiastically that one of the men in the boat heaved
himself up from the bottom, and, choking down a yawn, stared with heavy
amazement at the young virgin of the rocks, and uttered a "Che Diavolo!"
under his stiff mustache.

Vere saw his astonishment, and swiftly, with a parting wave of her hand
to Ruffo, she disappeared, leaving her protege to run off gayly with his
booty to his comrades of the _Sirena del Mare_.

CHAPTER III

"I can see the boat, Vere," said Hermione, when the girl came back, her
eyes still gleaming with memories of the fun of the cigarette game with
Ruffo.

"Where, Madre?"

She sat down quickly beside her mother on the window-seat, leaning
against her confidentially and looking out over the sea. Hermione put
her arm round the girl's shoulder.

"There! Don't you see!" She pointed. "It has passed Casa Pantano."

"I see! Yes, that is Gaspare, and Monsieur Emile in the stern. They
won't be late for lunch. I almost wish they would, Madre."

"Why?"

"I'm not a bit hungry. Ruffo wouldn't eat the dolce, so I did."

"Ruffo! You seem to have made great friends with that boy."

She did not speak rebukingly, but with a sort of tender amusement.

"I really have," returned Vere.

She put her head against her mother's shoulder.

"Isn't this odd, Madre? Twice in the short time I've known Ruffo, he's
obeyed me. The first time he was in the boat. I called out to him to
dive in, and he did it instantly. The second time he was under water,
at the very bottom of the sea. He looked as if he were dead, and for a
minute I felt frightened. So I called out to him to come up, and he came
up directly."

"But that only shows that he's a polite boy and does what you wish."

"No, no. He didn't hear me either time. He