yes; how cold
and empty are words compared with looks!

"Lise! Lise!" cried her aunt.

The baggage was already in the cab. I took down my harp and called to
Capi. At the sight of my old suit, he jumped and barked with joy. He
loved his liberty on the high roads more than being closed up in the
garden. They all got into the cab. I lifted Lise onto her aunt's lap. I
stood there half dazed, then the aunt gently pushed me away and closed
the door. They were off.

Through a mist I watched Lise as she leaned out of the window waving
her hand to me, then the cab sharply turned the corner of the street and
all I could see was a cloud of dust.

Leaning on my harp, with Capi sprawling at my feet, I stayed there
looking absently down the street. A neighbor, who had been asked to lock
up the house and keep the key, called to me:

"Are you going to stay there all day?"

"No, I'm off now."

"Where are you going?"

"Straight ahead."

"If you'd like to stay," he said, perhaps out of pity, "I'll keep you,
but I can't pay you, because you're not very strong. Later I might give
you something."

I thanked him, but said no.

"Well, as you like; I was only thinking for your own good. Good-by and
good luck!"

He went away. The cab had gone, the house was locked up.

I turned away from the home where I had lived for two years, and where I
had hoped always to live. The sky was clear, the weather warm, very
different from the icy night when poor Vitalis and I had fallen
exhausted by the wall.

So these two years had only been a halt. I must go on my way again. But
the stay had done me good. It had given me strength and I had made dear
friends. I was not now alone in the world, and I had an object in life,
to be useful and give pleasure to those I loved.

CHAPTER XX

MATTIA

The world was before me; I could go where I liked, north, south, east or
west. I was my own master. How many children there are who say to
themselves, "If I could only do as I liked, ... if I were my own
master!" And how impatiently they look forward to this day when they can
do the things they have longed to do, ... often very foolish things.
Between these children and myself there was a vast difference. When they
do anything foolish there is a hand stretched out, and they are picked
up if they fall. If I fell I should go down, down, down, and I might not
be able to pick myself up again. I was afraid. I knew the dangers that
beset me.

Befo