perfect dear,"
and a few hours in her company was a restful mind tonic. She had a
cheery manner and chatted upon all sorts of pleasant subjects, so that
after a time Lorna began to forget her "jim-jams" and even to volunteer
a remark or two, instead of confining her conversation to monosyllables.

Certainly any girl must have been hard to please who did not enjoy
herself. The motor drive was one of the loveliest in Italy. They passed
through glorious scenery, all the more beautiful as it was the
blossoming time of the year and flowers were everywhere. On a marshy
plain, as they reached Paestum, the fields were spangled with the little
white wild narcissus, growing in such tempting quantities that Miss
Morley asked the driver to stop the char-a-banc, and allowed all to
dismount and pick to their hearts' content.

"Isn't the scent of them heavenly!" said Lorna, burying her nose in a
bunch of sweetness.

"Luscious!" agreed Mrs. Clark. "I think the old Greeks must have
gathered these to weave garlands for their heads when they went to their
festivals. I'm glad tourists are safe here now. This marsh, just where
we're standing, used to be a tremendous haunt of brigands, and any
travelers coming to see the ruins ran the chance of being robbed. My
father had his purse taken years ago. Don't look frightened. The
government have put all that down at last. The neighborhood of Naples
has improved very much since I was a girl. I remember pickpockets used
to be quite common on the quay at Santa Lucia, and nobody troubled to
interfere. You can walk to the boat nowadays and carry a hand-bag
without fearing every moment it will be snatched."

But the driver was urging the necessity of pushing on, so all took their
seats again, and in due course reached Paestum. The girls had, of course,
seen photographs of the place beforehand, yet even these had hardly
prepared them for the stately magnificence of the three great temples
that suddenly broke upon their vision. Their immense size, their
loneliness, far from town or city, and their glorious situation betwixt
hill and blue sea, almost took the breath away, and filled the mind with
glowing admiration for the genius of Greek architecture. The rows of
fluted Doric columns, tapering symmetrically towards the roof, were like
beautiful lily stems supporting flowers, the mellow yellow tone of the
stone was varied by the ferns and acanthus which grew everywhere around,
and the sunshine, fallin