Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/22

 'The dead whom we seek had that passion, and it is the only human passion that is immortal,' said his companion. 'You were too quick to pay the greedy little imp; who knows whether he has cheated us or not? This may be but a fox's earth.'

'Foxes have no stairs, and we can soon see for ourselves,' said the other, and he descended into the aperture and felt his way down the steps, and at the foot of them stood still in surprise at the tomb that was Musa's home.

It was a grand tomb, he saw, Etruscan beyond doubt, and more perfect than most of these graves are when once the light of day and the eyes of curious mortality have fallen on them and found them out beneath their veil of myrtle and of bay leaves.

The stone biers, the stone chairs, the black pottery, the niche for the dog, the various paintings, all were Etruscan beyond question; but on the earthen floor there were the sticks and ashes of a spent fire; in the platter and one of the cups there were milk and bread and wild fruits, in a corner were a spinning wheel and a mandoline.

'Some one must live here,' they said one