e aloe. The laurel and the
cactus, the cypress and the pine, filled the air with their fragrance,
or charmed the eye with their rarity and beauty: the walks were
festooned with the vine, and they could raise their hands and pluck
the glowing fruit which screened them, from the beam by which, it was
ripened. In this enchanted domain Venetia might be often seen, a
form even fairer than the sculptured nymphs among which she glided,
catching the gentle breeze that played upon the surface of the lake,
or watching the white sail that glittered in the sun as it floated
over its purple bosom.

Yet this beautiful retreat Venetia was soon to quit, and she thought
of her departure with a sigh. Her mother had been warned to avoid
the neighbourhood of the mountains in the winter, and the autumn was
approaching its close. If Venetia could endure the passage of the
Apennines, it was the intention of Lady Annabel to pass the winter
on the coast of the Mediterranean; otherwise to settle in one of the
Lombard cities. At all events, in the course of a few weeks they were
to quit their villa on the lake.

CHAPTER II.

A very few days after this excursion on the lake, Lady Annabel and her
daughter were both surprised and pleased with a visit from a friend
whose appearance was certainly very unexpected; this was Captain
Cadurcis. On his way from Switzerland to Sicily, he had heard of their
residence in the neighbourhood, and had crossed over from Arona to
visit them.

The name of Cadurcis was still dear to Venetia, and George had
displayed such gallantry and devotion in all his cousin's troubles,
that she was personally attached to him; he had always been a
favourite of her mother; his arrival, therefore, was welcomed by each
of the ladies with great cordiality. He accepted the hospitality which
Lady Annabel offered him, and remained with them a week, a period
which they spent in visiting the most beautiful and interesting spots
of the lake, with which they were already sufficiently familiar to
allow them to prove guides as able as they were agreeable. These
excursions, indeed, contributed to the pleasure and happiness of the
whole party. There was about Captain Cadurcis a natural cheerfulness
which animated every one in his society; a gay simplicity, difficult
to define, but very charming, and which, without effort, often
produced deeper impressions than more brilliant and subtle qualities.
Left alone in the world, and without