Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/176

 such as she had never heard in it even when he had first said 'you love me!'

'Wait a little,' she answered him; and in a few moments she came out to him, thankful that the light of the tombs was so feeble.

He caught her hands.

'Oh tell me, tell me again, it is true indeed? Tell me all they say.'

She answered him in a strange measured voice, as though she recited a lesson.

'They offer five thousand lire to whosoever can tell where you are. Perhaps your people put it there. It 'said that the old man has confessed himself guilty of his wife's murder, and that the State pardons you because you are innocent; that I do not understand'

'It is the common formula when the law has been at fault and condemned the wrong person, he said quickly, a joyous agitation still trembling in him.: 'Yes, yes, no doubt my poor mother offers the reward. What she has suffered! You are sure you read it all?'

'Quite sure.'

He did not observe her, or he would have seen that the calm she had by