mediately padding silently after him. We
sat and waited perhaps half an hour on the threshold of Italy, our lamps
casting their rays into the country we were forbidden to enter, when I
heard Brown's voice and the sound of footsteps. By some persuasion he
had induced the _chef de douane_ to return with him. The office doors
were thrown open, the gas was lighted, the necessary papers were made
out, the deposit paid, and then, at Brown's invitation, the agreeable
official mounted into the car, and we ran quickly up the hill to his
house.

It was a thrilling drive from the frontier to Bordighera. A great wind
coming salt off the sea was moaning along the face of the mountains,
completely drowning the comforting hum of our motor. The road mounted up
and up, terrific gusts striking the car as it came out into exposed
places. Far below we heard the thunder of mighty waves dashing on the
rock. Then we began to descend a steep and twisting road that led up
presently to low ground, not much above the sea, where the wind shrieked
down the funnel of a river-bed. Then up again along another face of
cliff under cyclopean walls of masonry, and down a sudden shoot between
houses into the old, old town of Ventimiglia; across a river and a
plain, to be pulled up presently by a very dangerous obstacle--a huge
beam of wood, unlighted, and swung across the road to guard a level
crossing. Our great acetylene eye, glaring ahead, gave Brown ample
warning, and we slowed down, then stopped, while a train thundered past.
Very deliberately a signalman presently came to push the barrier aside,
and we darted on through a long, straggling village, turned away from
the sea, found a large iron gate with a lamp over it, standing
hospitably open, and twisting through a fairy-like garden studded with
gigantic palms, drew up in a flood of light that poured from the door of
a large white hotel. To walk into the big, bright hall, to hear pleasant
English voices, to see nice men and pretty girls dressed for dinner and
waiting for the stroke of the gong, was an extraordinary contrast to the
roaring blackness of the night outside. Everyone turned to stare at us
as we came in masked and goggled like divers.

This morning I waked up and looked out of my window a little before
seven. It was just sunrise and the wind had died. Under my eyes lay the
garden, lovely as Eden, garlands of roses looped from orange trees to
palms; banks of heliotrope, and sweetness unutt