Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/239

 the armour, the arms, the jewels, the possessions of the golden king whom the first ray of light had set free to ascend to the stars. She would sooner have stolen the chalice off the church altar, the jewels off the saint's shrine, than have touched those treasures of the Etruscan dead.

The flight and the theft of the man she had saved, weighed on her with a sense of shame; a burning indignation consumed her. She was silent by nature; she crushed the pain in silence into her heart, and said to herself that she would never speak of that traitor—never tell any living being of her rescue of him and of her betrayal by him—never; not even Joconda.

She came home to the stone pier of Santa Tarsilla and fastened up the boat in silence, and took her way through the little town, steeped in the drowsy calm of a sultry and late afternoon.

Here and there in an open court, or upon a stone bench, or under the deep caves of a roof some figure was lying asleep; that was all. The stillness of heat and of exhaustion had fallen on all the place, and the very dogs lay motionless and stupid in what little shade there was to be found anywhere.