he was in earnest. She opened the book that very
evening, and began to read. But her sanguine expectations were not
fulfilled. She read the words, she understood their meaning; but it was as
if she heard them at a distance and through them all, louder than all
else, sounded something in her ears and in her heart that drowned them. It
was the flow of the troubled waters, as Sabina had said. The waves rose
higher; their noise increased, until Veronica lost all hearing and
understanding of what she was reading. Still she persevered; perhaps
bye-and-bye it would come right. Alas! was not that the house door opening
and shutting again so softly late in the night? She flung the book aside;
walked rapidly back and forth in her chamber for awhile, then unfolded her
sewing, and worked steadily on and on, until the morning broke and a new
day called her to its duties.

CHAPTER VII.

A THUNDER CLAP.

Blasi, the lounger, stood in his doorway in the clear sunshine of this
lovely summer morning, both hands plunged deep into his pockets as was his
wont, and looked about him as if to see whether everything in the outer
world was the same as yesterday.

Judith came out to the well, carrying her water-jug on her head.

"Look out, Blasi, you are losing something," she cried. Blasi looked on
the ground, turned about, and searched behind and before.

"I don't see anything," he said, and stuffed his hands deeper into his
pockets.

"It's always so with me," said Judith, "when I've lost anything, I can't
see it."

"Oh ho, you're making a fool of me again!"

"That's all the thanks I get for telling you that you are losing
something, and I was just going to make you a present that is worth more
than five francs to a fellow like you."

"What is it? Show it to me," said Blasi, with more animation.

"First I will tell you something, and then you shall have it," replied
Judith. "Look here, Blasi, my sainted father used to say, "If you keep
your hands out of your pockets they will get full, but if you keep them
in, your pockets will be empty." Now, both your hands are in your
pockets, so all that ought to go in is running to waste. Isn't that so?"

"Well, suppose it is," said Blasi, angrily. "Now give me what you promised
me."

"I gave it to you this very minute. I said you'd better take your hands
out of your pockets, and then your earnings would run in. That's good
advice and worth more than five francs.

"What stuff! No o