faithfully to engineer that
he sits next to Lorna in the boat to-day. Are you going with Stewart?
Well, I've promised Michael if he's a particularly good boy I'll let him
row me in the little skiff. I dare say Charlie will be angry, but I
can't help it. The Foards are as alike as buttons in looks, but the
younger one is so infinitely nicer than the other."

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday had slipped blissfully by. Except for
the few hours daily during which the steamer from Naples visited Capri,
with promenade deck filled with tourists, the little island was
wonderfully quiet, and by keeping away from the Marina Grande or the
highroads it was possible to avoid other holiday-makers. If they were
not on the sea "the clan," as the whole party liked to call themselves,
generally went up the hills to escape civilization. The natives had
begun to know them, and though they might be offered oranges, figs, or
dates by street vendors they were not continually pestered to take
carriages, engage guides or donkeys, or buy picture post-cards or long
strings of coral. Irene loved occasional excursions into the white town
on the rock. The strict rules and convent seclusion of the Villa
Camellia had given her no opportunity of sampling shops at Fossato, so,
except for her half-term holiday at Naples, this was her first
experience of marketing in Italy. The unfamiliar money and measures were
of course confusing, but the quaint little cakes, the lollipops wrapped
in fringed tissue paper of gay colors, the sugar hearts, the plaited
baskets, the inlaid boxes, the mosaic brooches, the beads, and the
hundred and one cheap trifles spread forth on stalls or in windows
fascinated her, and drew many lire from her purse. She only knew a few
words of colloquial Italian, but she used these to the best advantage,
and made up the rest with nods and smiles, a language well understood by
the kindly people of Capri, to whom a gesture is as eloquent as a whole
sentence. Vincent, whose talents ran more towards prowess at football
than a gift for languages, would often escort his sister, and conducted
his bargaining by pointing to what he wanted and counting the price in
lire on his five fingers, an operation that caused fits of amusement to
the shopkeepers, with whom the fair young Englishman became quite a
favorite. As long as Vincent could see what he wished for on sale and
indicate it with a finger he got along all right, but matters grew
complicated