Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/10

 her clothes heavy with dew, and sat while in the solitude, thinking.

What she was called upon to do cost her all her courage.

When she had summoned up her strength, and rested a little her tired limbs, she approached Este. He did not look up from the clay he worked on by the light of the oil wick. He was angered, irritated, suspicious.

She went to him and rested her hands on the slab of nenfro.

'I could not bear that he should think us thankless, so I went. He bade me give you a message from him. If you will, he is ready to buy or to hire a ship, and carry you over the sea. If you like, you can go. That is what he told me to tell you.'

Este started violently and let fall the tool with which he worked.

He rose to his feet and breathed quickly.

'He—a stranger—would do this for me? Are you jesting? It is impossible!

'No; it is true,' she said in the same measured, low, grave voice in which she had spoken the other words. 'He will do all that, if you wish him. I am to go back and tell