On a monster rock a mile or more away two figures made silhouettes against the jewelled sunset.
"Annie," said one of the figures, "I did not wish to make a sensation by telling it first at the supper-table, and I want _your_ congratulations before any others. I have sold my _Esmeralda_. I go to Boston to-morrow, and shall sail for Europe next week."
Her sight was darkened, her heart stood still. Life seemed to die out of her with one horrible pang. Nevertheless, in an instant her head tiptilted, and she twittered her congratulations as airily as if the whole universe had burst into a sudden marvel of bloom and beauty and she were the first humming-bird born into it.
"Always keep your young nature and preserve your young ways, Annie," he said admiringly: "they are your greatest charm."
Then they turned and walked supperward together.
The Neapolitan steamer was greasy and smelled of garlic and bitumen. The red-shirted sailors were singing "Santa Lucia" from high and low, and a stalwart contadina was accompanying them with her tambourine down in the third-class place. Very few passengers were scattered about the deck, and the general speech was of the Blue Grotto. Evidently, of the first-class passengers only two were making more than an excursion from Naples, the excursionists intending to return with the steamer after a peep into the famous cave.
One of these two persons was rather a remarkable-looking lady. She wore a jaunty hat many years too young for the face: it did _not_ shade. Her coquettish jacket and short skirt made her from a distance--a very long one--seem like a girl of eighteen. She wore her hair in a girlish braid--alas, woefully faded! She was airy of motion and coquettish of gesture, evidently one of those sad women who, burying their heads from the sight of the passing years, fancy that Time forgets to touch them.
The other person was a handsome gentleman of more than forty. The Hyperion curls had been thicker on his brow than now, and his shadow more slender, but it by no means follows that he was as bald as Cæsar or as bulky as the Belvidere Torso. He was dressed in elegant travelling costume, and, as well-dressed men must be, with coat evidently of London make and trousers Parisian.