r. His ways might be affected and effeminate
and his conversational powers indifferent; but his bandaged wrist was a
constant reminder to all the nieces that he possessed courage and ready
wit, and it was but natural that he became more interesting to them
because just now he was to an extent helpless, and his crippled hand had
been acquired in their service.

Uncle John watched the young fellow shrewdly, but could discover little
harm in him except his attempt to deceive them in regard to his name and
position. Yet in his mature eyes there was not much about Ferralti to
arouse admiration, and the little man considered his girls too sensible
to be greatly impressed by this youthful Italian's personality. So he
allowed him to sit with his nieces in the gardens as much as he
pleased, believing it would be ungrateful to deprive the count of that
harmless recreation.

"A reg'lar chaperone might think differently," he reflected; "but thank
goodness there are no dragons swimming in our cup of happiness."

One day they devoted to Capri and the Blue Grotto, and afterward they
lunched at the Quisisana and passed the afternoon in the town. But the
charms of Sorrento were too great for Capri to win their allegiance, and
they were glad to get back to their quaint town and delightful gardens
again.

The week passed all too swiftly, and then came a letter from Colonel
Angeli telling them to return to Naples and witness the results of the
eruption. This they decided to do, and bidding good-bye to Signor
Floriano and his excellent hotel they steamed across the bay and found
the "Vesuve" a vastly different hostelry from the dismal place they had
left in their flight from Naples. It was now teeming with life, for, all
danger being past, the tourists had flocked to the city in droves. The
town was still covered with ashes, but under the brilliant sunshine it
did not look as gloomy as one might imagine, and already thousands of
carts were busily gathering the dust from the streets and dumping it in
the waters of the bay. It would require months of hard work, though,
before Naples could regain a semblance of its former beauty.

Their friend the Colonel personally accompanied them to the towns that
had suffered the most from the eruption. At Boscatrecasa they walked
over the great beds of lava that had demolished the town--banks of
cinders looking like lumps of pumice stone and massed from twenty to
thirty feet in thickness throughout t