Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/72

 The old man hobbled after her and touched her on the arm.

'You were always running about over all the wild places,' he said timidly. 'Did ever you see that young man the law is looking for always? The placards have been down a long time, the rains worked havoc with them, but no doubt you will have read them, and there is a pretty penny to be made that way, and if you should have ever seen him'

'There is a pretty penny to be made, too, by telling how tobacco is run in at Santa Tarsilla,' she answered him calmly. 'I am no informer, you know that; do not you begin to be one in your old age. If the young man escaped the fever of the marshes, surely men may let him live in peace where-ever he be; such peace as he can have with a price upon his head.'

'Who is your lover that has been ill?' murmured Andreino in wheedling, insinuating tones as though he were caressing her. It was the merest guess with him, made in shrewd cunning.

His eyes, keen still to mark such things though he was nigh ninety years old, saw the blood go away from the peach-like cheek