Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/124

 struggle in the gin, writhing its flower-like body and its flame-like throat, and beating its crimson wings in madness and terror, till it died; he made her think of the Egyptian bird.

It was a fear so natural which pursued him even into the stupor of insensibility that it seemed, not craven, but merely human, as is the fear of men in shipwreck.

She soothed him as well as she knew how, with wet moss upon his head, and water ever to his reach. 'To her, used as she was to the open air and the open sea, there could have been no greater deprivation than to remain cooped up under the vault of stone all through the brilliant days of the late summer. Yet she stayed down in the tombs for this stranger's sake, only going out for such time as it was absolutely necessary to take for the finding of simples and of food, and the cutting of wood for fuel. She missed the help of Zefferino sorely; and without him the little gains she had made were lost to her, at least were lost until she could be free to carry what she sold herself to the hill-villages, and this she would then be afraid to do lest it should lead to discovery not of her refuge