Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/115



EANWHILE, the child went out to her task. She was always willing to labour in the open air. It was only against four walls that she rebelled.

She had taken a kreel, and a fork, and went down to the black and purple masses of algæ that a rough sea of the night before had cast on the shore. Her feet were bare; her grey linen garment clung close to her graceful and strong limbs; her hair was cut so that it only touched her throat, and was as brilliant in the sunshine as that bronze of emperors which had gold ungrudged in its formation; her noble eyes grave, lustrous, wide opened, gazed over the sunlight, beyond the bay, to the open sea.