his eyes on me—­I really felt them.  So, you know, when we got at the foot of the cone, I was so excited that I was really quite beside myself, and I teased and teased, till at last Ethel consented to go up.  So the men took us up on chairs, and all the time the stranger was in sight.  He walked up by himself with great, big, long, strong strides.  So we went on till we got at the top, and then I was wilder than ever.  I didn’t know that there was a particle of danger.  I was dying with curiosity to look down, and see where the smoke came from.  The stranger was standing there too, and that’s what made me so excited.  I wanted to show him—­I don’t know what.  I think my idea was to show him that I could take care of myself.  So then I teased and teased, and Ethel begged and prayed, and she cried, and I laughed; and there stood the stranger, seeing it all, until at last I started off, and ran up to the top, you know.”

Mrs. Willoughby shuddered, and took her sister’s hand.

“There was no end of smoke, you know, and it was awfully unpleasant, and I got to the top I don’t know how, when suddenly I fainted.”

Minnie paused for a moment, and looked at her sister with a rueful face.

“Well, now, dear, darling, the very—­next—­thing—­that I remember is this, and it’s horrid:  I felt awful jolts, and found myself in the arms of a great, big, horrid man, who was running down the side of the mountain with dreadfully long jumps, and I felt as though he was some horrid ogre carrying poor me away to his den to eat me up.  But I didn’t say one word.  I wasn’t much frightened.  I felt provoked.  I knew it was that horrid man.  And then I wondered what you’d say; and I thought, oh, how you would scold!  And then I knew that this horrid man would chase me away from Italy; and then I would have to go to Turkey, and have my life saved by a Mohammedan.  And that was horrid.

“Well, at last he stopped and laid me down.  He was very gentle, though he was so big.  I kept my eyes shut, and lay as still as a mouse, hoping that Ethel would come.  But Ethel didn’t.  She was coming down with the chair, you know, and her men couldn’t run like mine.  And oh, Kitty darling, you have no idea what I suffered.  This horrid man was rubbing and pounding at my hands, and sighing and groaning.  I stole a little bit of a look at him—­just a little bit of a bit—­and saw tears in his eyes, and a wild look of fear in his face.  Then I knew that he was going to propose to me on the spot, and kept my eyes shut tighter than ever.

“Well, at last he hurt my hands so that I thought I’d try to make him stop.  So I spoke as low as I could, and asked if I was home, and he said yes.”

Minnie paused.

“Well?” asked her sister.

“Well,” said Minnie, in a doleful tone, “I then asked, ’Is that you, papa dear?’”

Minnie stopped again.

“Well?” asked Mrs. Willoughby once more.