Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/68

 He felt that if she did not distrust him she had no friendliness for him.

She had brought him the clear spring water in the graceful rhyton, and tendered it to him with a pile of wood strawberries and a loaf of her own oaten bread, because she had nothing else to give; but he felt that the hospitality was always for the sake of dead Joconda, and her tolerance of his presence due to the same cause.

'Since you cared for Joconda, you should have some kindliness for me,' he said with a sigh.

'You do not recall her to me, though I believe what you say,' she answered him. 'She was so poor, so sad of heart.'

'I am neither, thank heaven,' said Sanctis. 'But it is no merit of mine; my father amassed wealth as I have told you, and I am able to walk in the sunshine and give my years to art.'

'That is no fault,' said Musa. 'But yet one does not care for it.'

'I never knew any one who was well off,' she added after awhile. 'It does not seem right; why should you not work as every one does in Maremma?'

'I work in my own way.'