When, however, they had both turned their backs upon him, he permitted his glance to follow the padre as he strode carefully up the stony beach, but for a very short distance, and then directed it to the girl, who was mounting the hill to the right, holding his hand over his eyes to shade them from the bright sun. When she reached the place where the road begins to run between the walls, she paused for a moment, as if to take breath, and turned round. The Marina lay at her feet, above her towered the steep cliffs, and before her spread the sea in all its azure beauty. It was, indeed, a view well worth the pause. Chance so willed it that her glance, sweeping past Antonino's boat, encountered the one which he had sent after her. They both made a movement, like persons who wish to excuse themselves--"a mere matter of accident;" and then the girl continued her way with closely-compressed lips. CHAPTER II. It was only an hour after midday, and Antonino had been sitting long on a bench before the little fishing osteria. Something seemed to be passing through his mind, for every five minutes he sprang up, stepped out into the sun, and examined carefully the paths which led right and left to the two island towns. "The weather looked suspicious," he told the hostess; "it was clear enough now, but he knew this colour of the sea and sky; it had looked just like this before the last great storm, when the English family were saved with such difficulty. She must remember it?" "No." "Well, she would remember what he had said, if it changed before night." "Have you many visitors over there?" asked the hostess, after a pause. "They are just beginning to come. We have had hard times till now. The bathers have not arrived yet." "The spring was late. Have you done better here in Capri?" "I should not have managed to get macaroni twice a week if it had depended on the boat. Now and then a letter to take to Naples, or a gentleman who wanted a row on the sea or to fish--that was all. But you know that my uncle has got the great orange garden, and is a rich man. 'Tonino,' he said to me, 'as long as I live you shall not want, and afterwards you will be cared for.' So I got through the winter with God's help." "Has your uncle children?" "No; he was never married; he was long in foreign countries where he managed to scrape many a good piaster together; now he has an idea of setting up a large fishery, and is going to put me at the head of the whole affair to see that he gets his rights." "So you are a made man, Antonino." The young boatman shrugged his shoulders. "Each one has his burden to bear," he said. Then he sprang up and looked right and left at the weather, though he must have known that there was but one weather-side. "Let me bring you another flask, your uncle can pay for it," said the hostess. "Only one glass more, my head is warm already."