"Look at the lovely carriage ahead of us," she cried. "It is lined with white. Aren't the ladies in it pretty, Beppo? That seat in front of them is just loaded with bouquets and confetti. They are standing up now to throw better." Beppo didn't care for this half as much as for the wagon-loads of people dressed in bright colours and wearing masks. "Look at that man, Tessa, before he is out of sight. Yes, it must be a man, though he is dressed like a woman. See his false curls hanging down under the bonnet, and hear him talk. He keeps every one around him laughing. Let's put on our masks and then ride past Lucy's house. She won't know us if she sees us." Beppo had made some rude masks before the children left home. After they had put them on, they felt sure no one would know them as they rode through the lively crowd. "Look up at the second balcony," whispered Tessa, as she came up close to her brother's side. "There are Lucy and Arthur with their father and mother, in the midst of a merry party. We might have known they would be here on the Corso." "Do you see what Arthur is doing?" replied Beppo. "He has a bouquet of flowers fastened to the end of a long string. And now he is dangling it over the rail. Just see that lady in the balcony below reaching out to get it. She thinks it is being thrown to her. How surprised she is when it comes up again out of her reach. Oh, what sport! "But watch, Tessa. I am going to throw my prettiest bunch of flowers to Lucy. Ah! she looks like an angel to-day. She is all in white." Beppo took a bouquet of roses and tossed them straight up into his little friend's lap. She was looking directly toward him as he threw them. She began to laugh, and, lifting them in her hands, turned to her father and said something. "She is asking him who we are," said Beppo. "She will never guess, for she does not expect to see us at the carnival." Tessa and her brother now moved onward, but not before they were covered with a shower of candy. It was Lucy's return for her flowers. A little before sunset the two country children went back to their cousin's. They found their father and mother all ready to go out to see the races. "What an odd-looking child you are, Tessa. And you, too, Beppo," said their mother. For they were fairly covered with white dust. "Never mind," laughed Beppo. "You will look like that to-morrow, mother, if you stay outdoors long enough. I really think that hundreds of bushels of confetti have been thrown about the streets to-day. We have received our share of them, without doubt." "Come, come, not a moment to lose now," said the father, "or we shall be too late to see the sport." The good-natured cousin said she would look after the baby, while Francesca rode off down the street on her father's shoulder. The donkeys had been put in the stable for their night's rest. The party soon reached the Corso, which had been cleared of carriages. Both sides were lined by an ever-growing crowd.