ugh gesture of command with his
hand, and started down towards the boat.

Then an old lady appeared under one of the arches of the portico, her
lean person enveloped in an Indian shawl, below which a black silk skirt
showed. Her head was surmounted by a fashionable bonnet, spindling, and
lofty, trimmed with tiny yellow roses, and black lace. Two black curls
framed the wrinkled face; the eyes were large and gentle, and the wide
mouth was shaded by a faint moustache.

"Oh Pin!" she exclaimed, clasping her canary-coloured gloves, and
pausing on the bank to gaze helplessly at the boatman. "Can we really
venture out with the lake in this state?"

Her husband made a still more imperious gesture, and his face assumed a
still sourer expression. The poor woman slipped down to the boat in
silence, and was helped in, trembling violently.

"I commend myself to Our Lady of Caravino, my good Pin!" she said. "What
a dreadful lake!"

The boatman shook his head, smiling.

"By the way!" Pasotti exclaimed, "have you brought the sail along?"

"It is up at the house," Pin answered. "Shall I go for it? But perhaps
the Signora here, might be frightened. Besides, here comes the rain!"

"Go and fetch it," said Pasotti.

The Signora, who was as deaf as a post, had not heard a word of this
conversation, and, greatly amazed at seeing Pin run off, asked her
husband where he was going.

"The sail!" Pasotti shouted into her face. She sat, bending forward, her
mouth wide open, striving in vain, to catch, at least, the sound of his
voice.

"The sail!" he repeated, still louder, his hands framing his mouth.

She began to think that she understood. Trembling with fright she drew a
questioning hieroglyphic in the air with her finger. Pasotti answered by
drawing an imaginary curve in the air, and blowing into it; then he
silently nodded his head. His wife, convulsed with terror, started to
leave the boat.

"I am going to get out!" said she in an agonised voice. "I am going to
get out! I want to walk!"

Her husband seized her by the arm, and pulled her down into her seat,
fixing two flaming eyes upon her.

Meanwhile the boatman had returned with the sail. The poor woman writhed
and sighed; tears stood in her eyes, and she cast despairing glances at
the shore, but she was silent. The mast was raised, the two lower ends
of the sail were made fast, and the boat was about to put out, when a
voice bellowed from the portico--

"Hallo! Hallo!