Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/338

348 North, and compel me to lie down on my bed many times in the course of the day.

My enamored couple, on the contrary, seem to be little conscious of the outer heat, if all be but well with the inner!—and, as they are continually walking or sitting out in the air, they are less annoyed by the flies, &c., than I am, who spend the forenoon quietly in my own room. I am resolved to seek for a more shaded home, where the air is fresher, and shall therefore return in the morning with the enamored pair to Naples, in order to go thence to Sorrento. Our host makes the most beautiful speeches against my determination, saying:

“Signora, I am very much concerned at your intention of leaving this place. I and my wife have really become attached to your Excellency. I love you as my mother, nay almost more than my mother, and I will do all I can to serve you. And I tell you what, and you'll remember my word—there is no place so fresh and so healthful as this island, where the sea goes round, around, around, around (entorno, entorno, entorno). You may go to Sorrento, to Castel-a-Mare, to whatever place you like, and you will find reason to say, ‘Crescens was right, after all; the air is nowhere so fresh as at Ischia,’ and it cannot be otherwise, because there the sea goes around, around, around, around!” But not all the eloquence of Crescens can persuade me. I shall set off in the morning.

, July 7th.—I am still detained here, in the first place, by my countryman, Mr. S., who, the very morning we were intending to leave, made his