dden treasure that
turned to lead as soon as it was brought to the daylight; and she had
been so obedient that when she had to go to church she had kept her face
shaded by her hood and had pursed up her lips quite tightly. It was
true her obedience had been a little helped by her own dread lest the
alarming stepfather Nofri should turn up even in this quarter, so far
from the Por' del Prato, and beat her at least, if he did not drag her
back to work for him. But this old man was not an acquaintance; he was
a poor stranger going to sleep in the outhouse, and he probably knew
nothing of stepfather Nofri; and, besides, if she took him some supper,
he would like her, and not want to tell anything about her. Monna Lisa
would say she must not go and talk to him, therefore Monna Lisa must not
be consulted. It did not signify what she found out after it had been
done.

Supper was being prepared, she knew--a mountain of macaroni flavoured
with cheese, fragrant enough to tame any stranger. So she tripped
down-stairs with a mind full of deep designs, and first asking with an
innocent look what that noise of talking had been, without waiting for
an answer, knit her brow with a peremptory air, something like a kitten
trying to be formidable, and sent the old woman upstairs; saying, she
chose to eat her supper down below. In three minutes Tessa with her
lantern in one hand and a wooden bowl of macaroni in the other, was
kicking gently at the door of the outhouse; and Baldassarre, roused from
sad reverie, doubted in the first moment whether he were awake as he
opened the door and saw this surprising little handmaid, with delight in
her wide eyes, breaking in on his dismal loneliness.

"I've brought you some supper," she said, lifting her mouth towards his
ear and shouting, as if he had been deaf like Monna Lisa. "Sit down and
eat it, while I stay with you."

Surprise and distrust surmounted every other feeling in Baldassarre, but
though he had no smile or word of gratitude ready, there could not be
any impulse to push away this visitant, and he sank down passively on
his straw again, while Tessa placed herself close to him, put the wooden
bowl on his lap, and set down the lantern in front of them, crossing her
hands before her, and nodding at the bowl with a significant smile, as
much as to say, "Yes, you may really eat it." For, in the excitement of
carrying out her deed, she had forgotten her previous thought that the
str