The only other visitors to-day were a couple of Germans, who looked like artists and went about in enthusiastic talk; one kept dealing the other severe blows on the chest, which occasionally made the recipient stagger--all in pure joy and friendship. They measured some of the columns, and in one place, for a special piece of observation, the smaller man mounted on his companion's shoulders. Miriam happened to see them whilst they were thus posed, and the spectacle struck her with such ludicrous effect that she turned away to disguise sudden laughter. In doing so, she by chance faced Mallard, and he too began to laugh. For the first time since they had been acquainted, they looked into each other's eyes with frank, hearty merriment. Miriam speedily controlled herself, and there came a flush to her cheeks. "You may laugh," said Spence, observing them, "but when did you see two Englishmen abroad who did themselves so much honour?" "True enough," replied Mallard. "One supposes that Englishmen with brains are occasionally to be found in Italy, but I don't know where they hide themselves." "You will meet one in Rome in a few days," remarked Eleanor, "if you go on with us--as I hope you intend to?" "Yes, I shall go with you to Rome. Who is the man?" "Mr. Seaborne--your most reverent admirer." "Ah, I should like to know the fellow." Miriam looked at him and smiled. "You know Mr. Seaborne?" he inquired of her, abruptly. "He was with us a fortnight in Athens." As they were idling about, after their lunch, Mallard kept near to Miriam, but without speaking. He saw her stoop to pick up a piece of stone; presently another. She glanced at him. "Bits of Paestum," he said, smiling; "perhaps of Poseidonia. Look at the field over there, where the oxen are; they have walled it in with fragments dug up out of the earth,--the remnants of a city." She just bent her head, in sign of sympathy. A minute or two after, she held out to him the two stones she had taken up. "How cold one is, and how warm the other!" One was marble, one travertine. Mallard held them for a moment, and smiled assent; then gave them back to her. She threw them away. When it was time to think of departure, they went to the inn; Mallard's baggage was brought out and put into the carriage. They drove across the silent plain towards Salerno. In a pause of his conversation with Spence, Mallard drew Miriam's attention to the unfamiliar shape of Capri, as seen from this side of the Sorrento promontory. She looked, and murmured an affirmative. "You have been to Amalfi?" he asked. "Yes; we went last year." "I hope you hadn't such a day as your brother and I spent there--incessant pouring rain." "No; we had perfect weather."