"Where?" said Hermione, getting up and coming towards him. "Oh, that—no, it is a promontory, but it's almost surrounded by the sea. There is only a narrow ledge of rock, like a wall, connecting it with the main-land, and in the rock there's a sort of natural tunnel through which the sea flows. I've sometimes been to picnic there. On the plateau hidden among the trees there's a ruined house. I have spent many hours reading and writing in it. They call it, in Marechiaro, Casa delle Sirene—the house of the sirens."
"Questo vino è bello e fino,"
cried Gaspare's voice outside.
"A Brindisi!" said Hermione. "Gaspare's treating the boys. Questo vino—oh, how glorious to be here in Sicily!"
She put her arm through Delarey's, and drew him out onto the terrace. Gaspare, Lucrezia, Sebastiano, and the three boys stood there with glasses of red wine in their hands raised high above their heads.
"Questo vino è bello e fino,
È portato da Castel Perini,
Faccio brindisi alla Signora Ermini,"
continued Gaspare, joyously, and with an obvious pride in his poetical powers.
They all drank simultaneously, Lucrezia spluttering a little out of shyness.
"Monte Amato, Gaspare, not Castel Perini. But that doesn't rhyme, eh? Bravo! But we must drink, too."
Gaspare hastened to fill two more glasses.