But he laughed.
'I wonder how much it was worth--that place--in hard cash,' he said, drily.
'No doubt that was the secret of it.' Lucy smiled--unwillingly.

They were mounting a charming road high above the lake.

Stretching between them and the lake were steep olive gardens and vineyards; above them light half-fledged woods climbed to the sky.

In the vineyards the fresh red-brown earth shone amid the endless regiments of vines, just breaking into leaf; daisies glittered under the olives; and below, on a mid-way crag, a great wild-cherry, sun-touched, flung its boughs and blossoms, a dazzling pearly glory, over the dark blue hollow of the lake.
And on the farther side, the high, scooped-out wall of the crater rose rich and dark above the temple-site.

How white--_white_--it must have shone!--thought Lucy.