es fixed in the same attentive way. I moved
a little and saw my brother on the drawer-tops, smoking a cigarette, his
eyes cast down, speaking in a low voice. As I watched he raised his eyes
and gesticulated, smiling and shrugging his shoulders. And the audience
nodded and smiled too. He was taking them along with him. He was
telling them a story, the oldest trick in the world. I realized with a
start that I had no business there, and went along and round to my own
room. But I envied him, for with all his waywardness he had the gift of
gifts. He could charm the hearts of men and women, and hold them with
his words.

"As we came up the Gulf of Lyons I was thinking of seeing Rosa again,
and so perhaps I gave less attention to Frank. But just as usual, the
morning we arrived, as I was sitting in my room about five o'clock,
waiting for the stand-by gong, he came in with coffee and toast. 'I
suppose you're for the beach now, Frank,' I said. 'Oh yes,' he says, 'as
soon as I'm paid off!' 'You've done a damn sight better than I
expected,' I said, and then I stopped because he was looking at me in a
peculiar way. He drew the bunk-curtains close, shifted the mat straight
and went out.

"I was busy for a good while down below after we were tied up, for the
Second was scared of a bad place in one of the furnaces. When I came up
and sent the Third to call Frank, he came back and said he'd cleared
out. 'Went ashore with the Old Man, sir.' Well, I thought, he'll be down
to say good-bye, I suppose. I turned in, so as to be fresh in the
evening for Rosa.

"It was a beautiful night at the end of October. Genoa is always
beautiful to my mind, but that evening she was _la Superba_, as the
citizens love to call her. Right round the bay the harbour lights
twinkled, and above them the lights of the city seemed like a necklace
of diamonds, hung against the night. As the boatman rowed me ashore I
felt satisfied with myself. I was going to see my girl, and if I thought
of my brother at all--well, I'd done the right thing by him. I wished
him well. I intended, since he had made good, to give him some money to
get home to England in comfort, if he wanted to go. Yes, I was very
pleased that night.

"It wasn't long before Rosa and I were in the trolley car that runs
along the _Via Milano_ up to the _Piazza de Ferrari_, where all the
cafes and theatres are. I bought tickets for the _Verdi_ and then we
went to _Schlitz's_, a big German restaurant