ly house at night without a human being within call.
First, her feet grew strangely cold; then she felt a sort of creeping
fear stealing up to her out of the floor, as if she had drunk hemlock
and death were travelling slowly towards her heart, paralysing every
limb and joint on its relentless way.

It was not senseless physical fright, like Pina's; it would not drive
her to leave the house and run away into the darkness outside; if there
were anything to face Ortensia would face it, or try to, but what
terrified her now was that there was nothing, not a sound of life, not
the breath of a night breeze amongst leaves outside, not the stirring of
a mouse indoors. It was like the silence of the tomb.

Suddenly she heard bells, but they sounded far off, and all the windows
were tightly closed. She crossed herself with difficulty, and whispered
a 'Requiem aeternam' for all Christian souls, as good Catholics are
enjoined to do at the first hour of night. But it was an effort to raise
her hand to her forehead in making the sign; and suddenly, as if in
answer to her prayer, she seemed to hear the Bravo's voice close beside
her:--

'"And Judas went out and hanged himself."'

With the energy of a healthy young nature that revolts against
supernatural fears, she rose to her feet and went to one of the windows,
of which there were two on each side, looking over the road and towards
the vineyard respectively. She tried the fastenings of the first and
moved them, but she could not do more, though she used all her strength.
The frame seemed to be stuck beyond the possibility of being opened
without tools. She went to the next, and the next, till she had tried
all four; then her fear came back, for it was all more like a bad dream
than a reality, and the certainty flashed upon her that the windows had
been purposely fastened with nails or screws to prevent her from looking
out.

Gambardella had promised to come back with her husband in twenty
minutes. Three times that interval had now passed, and more too, and she
was still alone. It was not possible that any one should have knocked
for admittance without her hearing the sound, for the door of the
sitting-room was open to the stairs, and the house was no bigger than a
cottage.

She went back to her chair by the table, ashamed of feeling that she
could hardly stand. It was not strange that her fear of her own
situation should be stronger just then than her anxiety for Stradella,