undoubtedly her social
inferiors.

They were not mistaken in their prediction that the party from the yacht
would come up to the Cappuccini. Half an hour after the yacht had
dropped anchor the terrace was invaded. They came up in twos and threes,
nearly a dozen of them, men and women, smart-looking people with
healthy, sun-burnt faces, voices loud from the sea as voices become on a
long voyage--or else very low indeed. By contrast with the frequenters
of Amalfi they all seemed to wear overpoweringly good clothes and
perfectly new hats and caps, and their russet shoes were resplendent.
They moved as though everything belonged to them, from the wild crests
of the hills above to the calm blue water below, and the hotel servants
did their best to foster the agreeable illusion. They all wanted chairs,
and tables, and things to drink, and fruit. One very fair little lady
with hard, restless eyes, and clad in white serge, insisted upon having
grapes, and no one could convince her that grapes were not ripe in May.

"It's quite absurd!" she objected. "Of course they're ripe! We had the
most beautiful grapes at breakfast at Leo Cairngorm's the other day, so
of course they must have them here. Brook! Do tell the man not to be
absurd!"

"Man!" said the member of the party she had last addressed. "Do not be
absurd!"

"Si, Signore," replied the black-whiskered Amalfitan servant with
alacrity.

"You see!" cried the little lady triumphantly. "I told you so! You must
insist with these people. You can always get what you want. Brook,
where's my fan?"

She settled upon a straw chair--like a white butterfly. The others
walked on towards the end of the terrace, but the young man whom she
called Brook stood beside her, slowly lighting a cigarette, not five
paces from Mrs. Bowring and Clare.

"I'm sure I don't know where your fan is," he said, with a short laugh,
as he threw the end of the match over the wall.

"Well then, look for it!" she answered, rather sharply. "I'm awfully
hot, and I want it."

He glanced at her before he spoke again.

"I don't know where it is," he said quietly, but there was a shade of
annoyance in his face.

"I gave it to you just as we were getting into the boat," answered the
lady in white. "Do you mean to say that you left it on board?"

"I think you must be mistaken," said the young man. "You must have given
it to somebody else."

"It isn't likely that I should mistake you for any one else--esp