“You must come again, signorini,” said he, looking regretful at their departure.  “Next year the fountain of the ice cream soda will be in operation, like those you have in Chicago, which is America.  Our culture increases with our civilization.  It is even hinted that Il Duca is to abandon our island forever.  He has been interesting to us, but not popular, and you will not miss him when you come again to find he is not here.  If this time he has caused you an inconvenience, I am sorry.  It is regrettable, but,—­”

“But it is so!” said Patsy, laughing.

Tato was again transformed.  Patricia, who was the smallest of the three nieces, though not especially slim, had quickly altered one of her own pretty white gowns to fit the child, and as she was deft with her needle and the others had enthusiastically assisted her, Tato now looked more like a fairy than ever.

It was really wonderful what a suitable dress could do for the tiny Sicilian maid.  She had lost her free and boyish manner and become shy and retiring with strangers, although when in the society of the three nieces she was as sweet and frank as ever.  She wore her new gown gracefully, too, as if well accustomed to feminine attire all her life.  The only thing now needed, as Patsy said, was time in which to grow her hair, which had always been cut short, in boyish fashion.

They were a merry party when they boarded the train for Syracuse, and Uncle John arranged with the guard to secure two adjoining compartments all to themselves, that they might have plenty of room.

“Where did you put the money, Uncle John?” Beth whispered, when at last they were whirling along and skirting the base of Mt.  Etna toward the Catania side.

“I’ve hidden it in my trunk,” he replied, in the same confidential tone.  “There is no bank in this neighborhood to receive it, so I decided to carry it with us.”

“But will it be safe in the trunk?” she enquired.

“Of course, my dear.  Who would think of looking there for fifty thousand dollars?  And no one knows we happen to have so much money with us.”

“What did the Count—­I mean, Mr. Weldon—­do with his ransom?”

“Carries it in his satchel, so he can keep it with him and have an eye on it.  It’s a great mistake, Beth, to do such a thing as that.  It’ll make him uneasy every minute, and he won’t dare to let a facchino handle his grip.  But in my case, on the other hand, I know it’s somewhere in the baggage car, so I don’t have to worry.”

The journey was a delightful one.  The road skirted the coast through the oldest and most picturesque part of Sicily, and it amazed them to observe that however far they travelled Etna was always apparently next door, and within reaching distance.