116 TRAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AXD SPORT. 



gleaming above these startling flesh-tints with eager- 

 ness that looks intent, not upon conveying you safely 

 to the village, but upon tearing you piecemeal you 

 and your belongings. But there is not the least 

 occasion for alarm. This contending mob has just 

 been gathering, twenty strong, with glowing cheeks 

 and crisp locks, and limbs veiled and decorous, round 

 the two English ladies yonder in the corner of the 

 rocks, who have been taking a lesson in spinning 

 while they waited for the boat. Deft liosina, who 

 plucked you bodily out of Mrs Feliciello's hands, 

 rushed with the same instinct of knowing how, like 

 a capable soul as she is, to snatch out of the wonder- 

 ing owner's grasp the ready distaff and give the 

 needful instruction ; and the Furies closed around 

 and applauded the learner's unsuccessful attempts 

 to twirl the spindle, with shouts of good-humoured 

 laughter. But I allow they are terrific when, twenty 

 screaming like one, they catch at the prow of the 

 boat and clutch at you before you have left that 

 sanctuary. But all the same I think of thee with a 

 certain regret, Eosina mia, swift and skilful and 

 cheery as of a lost opportunity ; for in good hands 

 what could not have been made of the bright capable 

 creature who knew so well how to handle her tools ? 

 and it requires no such handy serviceable brains as 

 those she carried under her auburn locks to convey 

 blocks of stone up and down the Capri stairs which 

 was the last occupation we saw her in. It was she 



