Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/150

 'That is folly,' said Joconda, 'and if you talk of it so, none will believe you; they will say you have robbed the tomb, and there will be bad work, and I am not sure to whom that waste land belongs. Say nothing. That will be best. You have seen something, surely, for you look scared, but to say the gold and the dead went into the air is folly.'

'I say the truth,' said the child.

'You slept and dreamed, and I am tired. Get you to bed. It 1s midnight.'

'But who were those dead people?'

'That I do not know, and what does it matter? Poor souls—their day is done.'

'But the earth—is it all a grave?'

'Ay; and we shall be in it; no fear of our not having our turn; I almost wish you had brought a bit of the gold if you really did see it, not that it would have been right.'

'Did God make men and women?' she asked, meeting the eyes of Joconda, who answered testily—

'For sure, and He might have made them better when He was after it.'

'He must have been more glad when He made the coral in the deep sea, and