Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/125

 handsome face, as a cloud sweeps over a landscape.

'I have been seeking you many days, he said, 'to and fro, up and down the coast. I came back from the Flemish seas last month. It was bad weather for the most part; the snowstorms were many. Sometimes the rigging of my brig was hung with icicles. The winter is long in those parts, as long as the summer with us. I think they never see a sunbeam, save such as the oranges we take them have caught on their rinds of gold. You do not listen. I could tell you many things that would divert you, but you will not listen. Well, only hear me say this: I took the memory of you with me all the way over those cold seas. When my men shivered in the frost, I said to myself, "it is not so cold as were her unkind words." I have not looked a woman in the eyes since last I saw you yonder by the stagno. Nay, that I swear'

'Look at whom you will,' said Musa, angrily, 'only look not at me'

He pursued his discourse, unheeding her displeasure, though it struck him hardly.

'If you had been with me, the life