Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/137

 it is an island, you know, a big one; we can see it very far away, like a cloud, and the flamingoes come from there, they say.'

'Who told you?'

'A man upon the shore.'

A certain sensitiveness—rather for him than for the lover she had rejected—made her shrink from saying that a man who was free to woo her had spoken to her of love that day. She was afraid to rouse his jealousy.

Este ceased to look at the statue; his face grew overcast, he sighed with impatience.

'He can go, and the flamingoes, and the swallows, and the falcons,' he said bitterly; 'only I must stay! How did he get away?'

'The boat of a friend took him; he sprang from the sea-wall in the dark, as the gang left off their night-work.'

'I should have been better there than here; then I too might have taken that leap.'

'And I?' said the eyes of Musa; but her voice said nothing.

Was it of this he was always thinking? To escape, to get away, to go elsewhere? Was this home, that was as dear to her