some houses there
towards the end of the thirteenth century. Just above the edge of this
broken ground stood a queer little square building, looking like a
truncated tower roofed in with fluted tiles, and close by was a small
outhouse, apparently built up against a piece of ruined stone wall.
Under a large half-dead mulberry-tree that was now sending its last
fluttering leaves in at the open doorways, a shrivelled, hardy old woman
was untying a goat with two kids, and Baldassarre could see that part of
the outbuilding was occupied by live stock; but the door of the other
part was open, and it was empty of everything but some tools and straw.
It was just the sort of place he wanted. He spoke to the old woman; but
it was not till he got close to her and shouted in her ear, that he
succeeded in making her understand his want of a lodging, and his
readiness to pay for it. At first he could get no answer beyond shakes
of the head and the words, "No--no lodging," uttered in the muffled tone
of the deaf. But, by dint of persistence, he made clear to her that he
was a poor stranger from a long way over seas, and could not afford to
go to hostelries; that he only wanted to lie on the straw in the
outhouse, and would pay her a quattrino or two a week for that shelter.
She still looked at him dubiously, shaking her head and talking low to
herself; but presently, as if a new thought occurred to her, she fetched
a hatchet from the house, and, showing him a chump that lay half covered
with litter in a corner, asked him if he would chop that up for her: if
he would, he might lie in the outhouse for one night. He agreed, and
Monna Lisa stood with her arms akimbo to watch him, with a smile of
gratified cunning, saying low to herself--

"It's lain there ever since my old man died. What then? I might as
well have put a stone on the fire. He chops very well, though he does
speak with a foreign tongue, and looks odd. I couldn't have got it done
cheaper. And if he only wants a bit of straw to lie on, I might make
him do an errand or two up and down the hill. Who need know? And sin
that's hidden's half forgiven. [`Peccato celato e mezzo perdonato.']
He's a stranger: he'll take no notice of _her_. And I'll tell her to
keep her tongue still."

The antecedent to these feminine pronouns had a pair of blue eyes, which
at that moment were applied to a large round hole in the shutter of the
upper window. The shutter was closed, not