to some English friends at Lake
Scala, ten miles away, to see if they could not do something to relieve
her sister's solitude.

"To relieve my solitude!" gasped Daphne. "Oh I am so afraid something
will!"

There were several other letters, all from friends at home. One, in a
great square envelope, addressed with an English scrawl, she dreaded,
and she kept it for the last. When she did tear it open her face grew
quite pale. There was much in it about duty and consecration, and much
concerning two lives sacrificed to the same great ideal. It breathed
thoughts of denial and of annihilation of self, and,--yes, Eustace took
her at her word and was ready to welcome again the old relation. If
she would permit him, he would send back the ring.

Hermes hid behind a stone and dashed out at his mistress to surprise
her, expecting to be chased as usual, but Daphne could not run. With
heavy feet and downcast eyes she walked along the green roadway, then,
when her knees suddenly became weak, sat down on a stone and covered
her face with her hands. She had not known until this moment how she
had been hoping that two and two would not make four; she had not
really believed that this could be the result of her letter of
atonement. Her soul had traveled far since she wrote that letter, and
it was hard to find the way back. Hiding the brown and purple distances
of the Campagna came pictures of dim, candle-lighted spaces, of a thin
face with a setting of black and white priestly garments, and in her
ears was the sound of a voice endlessly intoning. It made up a vision
of the impossible.

She sat there a long, long time, and when she wakened to a
consciousness of where she was, it was a whining voice that roused her.

"Signorina, for the love of heaven, give me a few soldi, for I am
starving."

Daphne looked up and was startled, and yet old beggar women were common
enough sights here among the hills. This one had an evil look, with
her cunning, half-shut eyes.

The girl shook her head.

"I have no money with me," she remarked.

"But Signorina, so young, so beautiful, surely she has money with her."
A dirty brown hand came all too close to Daphne's face, and she sprang
to her feet.

"I have spoken," she said severely, giving a little stamp. "I have
none. Now go away."

The whining continued, unintermittent. The old woman came closer, and
her hand touched the girl's skirt. Wrenching herself away, Daphne
found he