“Beetle,” said Nan.
“Yes, that’s just it! These are beetling crags. I never realised what that meant before. And see this strange thing! It must be the ruins of an old dungeon. See how it juts and slopes straight up the mountain. A castle, ruined by an earthquake, probably. What is it, driver?”
“A landslide, madame.”
“Oh,” said Patty, in disgust, “I thought it was a ruined building.”
Arrived at the top of the really high hill, they alighted at the entrance to the hotel. And a peculiar entrance it was. First they walked through a long, straight marble-lined corridor that had been cut horizontally into the cliff. From this a vertical elevator-shaft was cut straight up to the hotel itself, many feet above. The ride up in the elevator seemed interminable, but at last they stepped out into a beautiful glass-enclosed parlour, from which Naples could be seen below them in every direction.
“Oh! oh!” exclaimed Patty, running from the view of the bay to that of Vesuvius, and then to the city view.
“I never saw such a fascinating place! Stay over another steamer, Daddy; don’t let’s go home yet.”
“We’ll settle that question later. Now, let’s go and find our rooms, Puss, and then you can come back here. The views will probably keep an hour or so.”
They followed an attendant through long corridors and labyrinthine ways, and came at last to their rooms, which looked out upon the beautiful bay, with Capri smiling sunnily across the blue, and Vesuvius standing calmly on the other side. Patty, in ecstasies of delight, could scarcely wait to unpack her things, and danced into Nan’s room, exclaiming anew at the beauties of the hotel, the city, and Italy in general.
“You goose!” said Nan. “One would think you’d never seen anything at all before. Do you like it better than Venice, or Rome?”