Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/324

Rh out. Her eyes were still bound from the light. She heard them lift him down from his bed of straw. She thought they bore him after her, as heavy steps followed in her rear; and a heavy hand thrust her forward down long stone passage-ways. Where they had brought her was a large granary, or group of store-houses, very lonely, and built strongly in early days, when the ungathered grain had to be not seldom defended with a fierce struggle from the raids of foreign bands that fought their quarrels out upon Italian soil. The building was two-storied, and the vast barn-like chambers were of stone, with slender windows barred with rusty iron, and with a faint dreamy odour in them from sheaves of millet stored there, and from a quantity of the boughs of the sweet myrtle, which had been cut away to lay clear the stems of olives to the air.

They undid the cord that bound her hands, and left her as they closed the door, and drew the bolts without.

She tore down the bandage that covered her eyes, and saw that they had played her false. In the darkened room she stood alone. For many hours afterwards time was a blank to her.

Whether sleep succeeded to the exhaustion, the