'Well,' said Madge, somewhat spitefully, 'considering you were in a closed carriage and driving through darkness, I don't see much of a beautiful picture to remember!' He did not seem to heed. It was Nan he was addressing; and there was a pleased light in her eyes. Reminiscences are to some people very delightful things. 'And you recollect the crowded saloon in the Splugen inn, and the snug little corner we got near the stove, and the little table. That's where you discovered the use of stupid people at dinner-parties----' 'What's that?' Mr. Tom demanded to know. 'It's a secret,' Captain King answered, with a laugh. 'And I think you were rather down-hearted next morning--until we began to get up through the clouds. That is a picture to remember at all events--a Christmas picture in summer time. Do you remember how green the pines looked above the snow? And how blue the sky was when the mist got driven over? And how business-like you looked in your ulster--buttoned up to the chin for resolute Alpine work. I fancy I can hear now the very chirp of your boots on the wet snow--it was very silent away up there.' 'I know,' said Nan, somewhat shamefacedly, 'that when I saw "_Ristoratore_" stuck up on the house near the top, I thought it was a place for restoring people found in the snow, until I heard the driver call out "_Du, hole Schnapps_."' 'Wasn't that a wild whirl down the other side!' he continued, delightedly. 'But you should have come into the Customs-house with me when I went to declare my cigars. You see it wouldn't do for me, who might one day get a coastguard appointment, to try on any smuggling. But I did remonstrate. I said I had already paid at Paris and at Basel; and that it was hard to have to pay three import dues on my cigars. Well, they were very civil. They said they couldn't help it. "Why not buy your cigars in the country where you smoke them?" asked an old gentleman in spectacles. "Because, Monsieur," I answered him, with the usual cheek of the English, "I prefer to smoke cigars made of tobacco." But he was quite polite. After charging me eighteen francs, he bowed me out, and said "a rivederla;" to which I responded "Oh no, thank you;" and then I found you and your sisters all laughing at me, as if I had been before a police-magistrate to be admonished.' 'You don't forget all the disagreeable details, then?' said Nan, with a smile. But the smile vanished from her face when he began to talk about Bellagio. He did so without any covert intention. It was always a joy to him to think or talk about the time that he and the three sisters spent together far away there in the south. And it was only about the Serenata and the procession of illuminated boats that he was thinking at this moment.