The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-12-03
Selert StOrp.
A MOMENTS PASSION.
From All The Year Round.

never occurred to him that he might be
imperiling his happiness, and Beatriees,
by just crossing to Capri for Il week
\ week is but seven days, yet at TWEEN
ty-five one may live great deal in seven
days, especially if you include the even
ings. with bright moon to them. and the
Bay of Naples far it to shine upon.
Beatrice and her mother remained at
the Hotel Victoria, in Naples. They were
Falconers, well-known people, and Phil
was engaged to Bee. She was pretty
girl, but after the colder type of English
beauty For instance, she was not prone
to express admiration for things and land
scapes, though she felt it. Her mother
went to and fro, looking at what she was
hidden to look at, and exclaiming "Won-
derful What excellent taste y and that
sort of thing. Beatrice behaved as though
her mother spoke for her also. Mrs. Fal-
coner was fine figure of woman, and
carried her long-stemmed tortoise-shell
glasses with considerable grace.
But there was no doubt about Bees
affection for Phil, who was Il cousin of
remote kind Phil knew that this was so
for had not he felt the gentle pressure of
her arm in his at moments of supreme
ecstasy: when, for instance, they were lis
tening to the music in the Villa gardens
on a royal afternoon of May, or strolling
up and down the Via Caracciola at prom
enade time, with the crimson sunset clouds
over the glorious bay, Ncsuvius Il beauti-
ful purple shade with Il gold-tipped coro-
net, and the long headlaud of Posillippo
enchanting as the arms of the siren? Yes,
Phil knew his little cousin better than any
one else in the world, and was content that
he was to marry her when she was twenty
one.
An artist of means, the young man was
not compelled to sue nature and his own
artistic moods with crushing carnestness.
He had about thousand a year, and
painted only when the passion was strong
on him.
In Naples, strange to say, he had not
once taken up brush. And yet it was
not very strange, either. For they had
lived in fashionable whirl, with dinners
and tennis in the garden of the Prince di
Castro, who adored all things English
suppers at Posillippo under the starlight
with the splash of the blue waves against
the base of their supper table, the theater,
and Wagners operas at the great house of
San Carlo, which cost the NeapoIitaps so
much to maintain.
How should the sweet spirit of art find
a corner in his soul in the midst of this
racket? 1t tried to do so now and again
when, for example, they sat on their hotel
balcony and looked at the moonlight on
the bay and listened to the seducing mel
ody of mandolins below them. But
Beatrice was then its rival. Her cold lit
tie hands set lightly ON Pills sinewy
brown ones banished it when it seemed
likely to assert its noble way
And so in a moment of dulifulness to
his ideals, Phil said one day
81 must go TO Capri.
Mrs. Falconer declined positively to
make this little voyage of four or five
hours. She was wont to feel very i'll dur
ing the crossing from Calais to Dover.
Besides, the Bay of Naples has vigorous
little waves at times, aud the packet boat
is mean affair.
"0h, mammal sighed disappointed
Bee but it was no use
That was how Phil came to set off by
himself. He waved his handkerchief in
the direction of the Hotel Victoria for
several minutes, and then, having lighted
cigar, turned his attention to his fellow
passengers and the gray angular shape
which was soon to declare itself definitely
as the witching island which Tiberius
tried to make into palace and country
seat both into one
The passengers were what he expected
mostly Teutonic the gentlemen in Ger
man-made straw hats and coats fitting
tight to the waist, wearing spectacles for
the most part, with tin cases-for sand
wiches, dried specimens, and so forth
slung from their shoulders, and very much
absorbed in their Baedekers and the la
dies enthusiastic enough to make him
shudder. Two or three Britons in light
suits lounged about, rejecting the ad-
dresses of the men who sell coral pins,
tortoise shell combs and copies of Neapoli-
tan "canzoni !" but he did not feel drawn
to them.
'I shall be rather glad when [ have got
through the trip, murmured Phil to him
self 81 miss Bee already No, thanks,
] don't want any. I tell you l desire
none of your things. Can't you leave a
fellow alone, you beastly nuisances p
These words were forced from him by the
solicitations of the deck merchants, who
showed surprising patience and assiduity.