At last that terrible banquet ended, and the company scattered about the reception-rooms and the terrace overlooking the sea. The Admiral and My Lady went out on the terrace. Her Majesty remained in the great room, which she had recently had decorated with frescoes in the style discovered in the excavations at Pompeji. She made rather an ostentation of talking to Neapolitans, and principally to the ladies among them; the subject of their conversation, from their looks, being the manly beauty of the English officers gathered under the centre chandelier--a splendid group. In true English style the captains stood together talking--no doubt of Service matters, just as they would when they met almost daily on the flagship or in the Admiral's anterooms at My Lady's palace. Will, his services not being required by the Admiral, was standing a little way from them. He was English, and therefore wished to do what the English did, and yet had too much pride and too good manners to go nearer to his superior officers; and I humbly took up my position by him, not expecting him to talk to me upon such an occasion, but from sheer not knowing what else to do. In a very few minutes My Lady and the Admiral returned, My Lady leading the way straight up to the captains. She had by this become so intimate with Her Majesty that there was no need for her to observe Court etiquette on entering the presence of the Sovereign. With the captains she was so natural and unaffected that even Captain Troubridge was melted. Hardly had she taken up her position when Donna Rusidda, having spoken with Her Majesty, upon whom she was attending, and having made her courtesy with the grace of a Neapolitan girl and a daughter of generations of courtiers, glided across the room to bring, as it seemed, a message to her Ladyship, though she lingered afterwards. I cannot say whether My Lady had an instinct against her. She was all smiles, as was her wont at such a gathering. But she did not lay her hand on the girl to detain her, or improvise any of the excuses for which she had such a happy invention; and after a few minutes of awkwardness Donna Rusidda was departing, a little crest-fallen, when her eye fell upon Will, almost in her path, just off the edge of the group. She motioned him to her. "Ah, Signor Vill," she said in her own language, her face lighting up with a smile even more beautiful than My Lady's, for it was rarer: "why do not all your English officers speak Italian, as you do? They spend their lives in guarding the coasts of our country, and yet do not understand any of her children."