iver, to spring into the carriage and let herself be taken
anywhere, if only she need not stay with the Dauntreys and the yapping
dog in this desolate house, which was a dead man's gift to her.

Her spirits faintly revived when the lamplight had shown her the richly
coloured dark face of the woman with the dog. It was a young face,
though too full and heavy chinned to be girlish: and from under an
untidy crown of black hair two great yellow-brown eyes, faithful and
lustrous as a spaniel's, gazed with eager curiosity at the Signorina. If
the caretaker of the Chateau Lontana had been old and forbidding Mary's
cup of misery would have overflowed, but the pleased smile of this
red-lipped, full-bosomed, healthy creature gave light and warmth to the
house.

"Welcome, Signorina," she said in the guttural Italian of one accustomed
to a _patois_. "It has been very lonely here since the poor Captain
ceased to come. The lawyer from Ventimiglia said perhaps the new
mistress would arrive and surprise me one day, but the time seemed long,
alone with the dog. Will the Signorina and her friends come in? Think
nothing of the baggage. I am strong and can carry it without help. What
a pity I did not know of the good fortune this night would bring! There
is nothing to eat but a little black bread, cheese, and lettuce with
oil: to drink, only coffee or some rough red wine of the country, and
fires nowhere except in the kitchen. But I have pleased myself by
keeping the best rooms prepared as well as I could. Fires are laid in
three of the fireplaces, and three beds can be ready when a warming pan
full of hot embers has been passed between the sheets. It was the poor,
good Captain himself who told me to be prepared. He too seemed to think
that the Signorina might come with friends, and talked to me of it the
last day he was here."

As the woman rambled on, she led the way into a large hall opening out
from the vestibule. In the dim light cast by her lamp the high
ceilinged, white-walled, sparsely furnished space was dreary as a
snow-cave, and as cold; but Mary could see that by day there might be
possibilities of stately charm. She forced herself to praise the hall in
order to please the caretaker, whose eyes begged some word of
admiration.

"Oh, there are many beautiful rooms, Signorina," the Italian woman said.
"In sunlight they are lovely. To-morrow, if the Signorina permits, I
will show her all over the house, and tell her what things