t last she had her wish. Roderigo's
place was towards the end of the column; when he walked under the gate
he looked up and smiled. It was a sad smile, full of regret.

Without exactly meaning to, Maria dropped the flower she was wearing in
her bodice. Roderigo caught it and tucked it, Neapolitan fashion,
behind his ear, then he blew a kiss to Maria and marched on.

Lucia watched the little scene. She was half amused and half
contemptuous. Her little heart under its gay bodice was filled with a
fine hate that left no room for pretty romance.

CHAPTER IV

LOST

When the soldiers had climbed out of sight into the mountains, Maria
walked slowly back to find her mother, and Lucia after a hurried
good-by ran home to tell Nana and Beppino the news.

She was far more worried over the possible order to evacuate than she
would admit. As their cottage was the farthest north on the road, it
would be the nearest to the Austrian guns. Personally Lucia scorned
the very idea of the Austrian guns, but she could not help realizing
the danger to Nana and Beppino and Garibaldi. She was still undecided
what to do when she reached the cottage.

Nana Rudini was standing in the doorway, shading her eyes with her
withered old hand, and staring intently in the direction that the
soldiers had taken.

"Did you see the troops, Nana?" Lucia asked cheerfully. "They were a
fine lot, eh? I guess they will be able to stop the enemy from coming
any nearer."

"Nearer?" queried Nana, "what are you saying?"

"We have had bad luck," Lucia explained. "Tavola has been captured,
and our soldiers are retreating. In town they say we may have to
evacuate before to-morrow."

The old woman received the news without comment, but a look of despair
came into her usually bright eyes, and for the moment made them tragic.
Long years before, when Austria had crossed the mountains and entered
Cellino, she had been a young girl. Now in her old age they were to
come again, and there was no reason to hope that this time they would
be less brutal in their triumph than they had been formerly. The
memory of their brutality was still a vivid one.

"We will leave at once," she said at last, and her decision was so
unexpected, that Lucia gasped in surprise.

"Leave? But, Nana, where will we go? What will become of our things?"
she exclaimed. "Surely we had better wait at least until we are
ordered out."

"No, we will leave at once," Nana re