nd people--seemed
unfamiliar and un-English, yet strangely fascinating. The bright land
with its sunshine appeared to be welcoming her.

"I shall like it! I shall like it! I shall like it!" said Irene to
herself, hanging out of the open window of their compartment and
watching some picturesque children who were waving a greeting to the
train. "I _know_ I shall like it!"

"Put your hat on and strap up your hold-all," said Father's voice in
the corridor outside. "Everybody else has luggage ready, and in another
ten minutes or so we shall be in Rome."

CHAPTER II

The Villa Camellia

The Beverleys did not break their journey in Rome, but merely changed
trains and pushed on southward. Irene was sorry at the time not to see
the imperial city, but afterwards she was glad that her first impression
of an Italian town should have been of Naples. Naples! Is there any
place like it in the whole world? Irene thought not, as she stood on her
veranda next morning and gazed across the blue bay to where Vesuvius was
sending a thin column of smoke into the cloudless sky. Below her lay the
public gardens, in which spring flowers were blooming, though it was
only the end of January, and beyond was a panorama of white houses,
green shutters, palm trees, picturesque boats, and a quay thronged with
traffic. To that harbor and that blue stretch of sea she was bound this
very day, for Father and Mother had arranged to take her straight to her
new school, and leave her there before they established themselves in
their flat.

"We haven't any time for sightseeing at present, dear," said Mrs.
Beverley, when Irene begged for at least a peep at the streets of
Naples. "We must put off these jaunts until the Easter holidays. The
term has begun at the Villa Camellia, and you ought to set to work at
your lessons at once. Don't pull such a doleful face. Be thankful you're
going to school in such a glorious spot. We might have left you at Miss
Gordon's."

"I'd have run away and followed you somehow, Mums darling! I don't mind
being a few miles off, but I couldn't bear to feel the Channel and the
whole of France and Switzerland and Italy lay between us. It's too far."

"Yes, our little family quartette is rather inseparable," agreed Mother.
"It's certainly nice to think that we're all 'within hail.'"

The school, recommended to Mr. and Mrs. Beverley by their American
friend, Mr. Proctor, was situated at the small town of Fossato, not far