inquiries if you like; it's barely possible that they might have got hold
of Jerry on some false charge or other. These foreign jails----'

'Constance!' said Nannie reproachfully.

'Oh, my dear, I was only joking; of course it's impossible. Good-bye.'
She nodded and laughed and ran after her father.

CHAPTER XVIII

If one must go to jail at all one could scarcely choose a more
entertaining jail than that of Valedolmo. It occupies a structure which
was once a palace; and its cells, planned for other purposes, are
spacious. But its most gratifying feature, to one forcibly removed from
social intercourse, is its outlook. The windows command the Piazza
Garibaldi, which is the social centre of the town; it contains the
village post, the fountain, the tobacco shop, the washing-trough, and the
two rival cafes, the 'Independenza' and the 'Liberta.' The piazza is
always dirty and noisy--that goes without saying--but on Wednesday
morning at nine o'clock, it is peculiarly dirty and noisy. Wednesday is
Valedolmo's market day, and the square is so cluttered with booths and
hucksters and anxious buyers, that the peaceable pedestrian can scarcely
wedge his way through. The noise moreover is deafening; above the cries
of vendors and buyers rises a shriller chorus of bleating kids and
squealing pigs and braying donkeys.

Mr. Wilder, red in the face and short of temper, pushed through the crowd
with little ceremony, prodding on the right with his umbrella, on the
left with his fan, and using his elbows vigorously. Constance, serenely
cool, followed in his wake, nodding here and there to a chance
acquaintance, smiling on every one; the spectacle to her held always
fresh interest. An image vendor close at her elbow insisted that she
should buy a Madonna and Bambina for fifty centesimi, or at least a San
Giuseppe for twenty-five. To her father's disgust she bought them both,
and presented them to two wide-eyed children who in bashful fascination
were dogging their footsteps.

The appearance of the foreigners in the piazza caused such a ripple of
interest, that for a moment the bargaining was suspended. When the two
mounted the steps of the jail and jerked the bell, as many of the
bystanders as the steps would accommodate mounted with them. Nobody
answered the first ring, and Constance pulled again with a force which
sent a jangle of bells echoing through the interior. After a second's
wait--snortingly impatient on Mr. Wilder'