Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/167

 filled with gold and silver. And if you doubt what I say and what I am, you can ask the syndic of this very town, for he has known me and my people many years, since my father traded here'

Musa only tried to move faster before him.

'You are mad, I think,' she said angrily, She thought he was. A man to talk thus who had only seen her once before for five minutes, on a summer morning, upon the sands!

In vain he urged, in vain he pleaded; he could make no impression upon her as he walked beside her, pouring out his full heart in words as the nightingale pours his in song. He was vehemently in earnest; he cared nothing for who she might be, nor whence she came: he wanted her, this strong and fearless and beautiful creature! What a mother she would be for sea-born children cradled by the winds and waves!

He might as well have spoken to a figure of bronze for aught that she was moved by it.

She scarcely heard him; she was thinking every moment of the fugitive hidden in