Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/259

 shrivel before a flame. But only for a moment, for they had so lied one to another that their lie almost seemed a truth to them; almost they had persuaded even themselves that they had a right to the gold of the woman of Savoy.

'Would we come with false claims?' they shrieked aloud in a chorus of wounded honour, and cried one against another, 'This is what comes of too great goodness! We trusted a foreign woman, and we left her alone because she was old, and then, when her end comes, we are despoiled! This is our reward! This is the justice we get from aliens!'

'Be quiet! be quiet! my dear friends—my good sweet neighbours!' murmured the old man, running from one to another, and thinking to himself, 'Whether she owed them or not, not a stiver of that good money shall go in the maw of these pigs. No, no; my grandson and I will do justice by her; and if she love not the wineshop we might buy a share in a boat, or in the salt-working, or purchase a pineto and clear it'

For as yet he did not know how much was in the pitcher or not; but he was quite sure the amount must be large.