ngly turned her head, "you
come from some castello a good way off, it seems to me, else you'd never
think of walking about, this blessed Carnival, without a red cross in
your hand. Santa Madonna! Four white quattrini is a small price to pay
for your soul--prices rise in purgatory, let me tell you."

"Oh, I should like one," said Tessa, hastily, "but I couldn't spare four
white quattrini."

Bratti had at first regarded Tessa too abstractedly as a mere customer
to look at her with any scrutiny, but when she began to speak he
exclaimed, "By the head of San Giovanni, it must be the little Tessa,
and looking as fresh as a ripe apple! What! you've done none the worse,
then, for running away from father Nofri? You were in the right of it,
for he goes on crutches now, and a crabbed fellow with crutches is
dangerous; he can reach across the house and beat a woman as he sits."

"I'm married," said Tessa, rather demurely, remembering Naldo's command
that she should behave with gravity; "and my husband takes great care of
me."

"Ah, then, you've fallen on your feet! Nofri said you were
good-for-nothing vermin; but what then? An ass may bray a good while
before he shakes the stars down. I always said you did well to run
away, and it isn't often Bratti's in the wrong. Well, and so you've got
a husband and plenty of money? Then you'll never think much of giving
four white quattrini for a red cross. I get no profit; but what with
the famine and the new religion, all other merchandise is gone down.
You live in the country where the chestnuts are plenty, eh? You've
never wanted for polenta, I can see."

"No, I've never wanted anything," said Tessa, still on her guard.

"Then you can afford to buy a cross. I got a Padre to bless them, and
you get blessing and all for four quattrini. It isn't for the profit; I
hardly get a danaro by the whole lot. But then they're holy wares, and
it's getting harder and harder work to see your way to Paradise: the
very Carnival is like Holy Week, and the least you can do to keep the
Devil from getting the upper hand is to buy a cross. God guard you!
think what the Devil's tooth is! You've seen him biting the man in San
Giovanni, I should hope?"

Tessa felt much teased and frightened. "Oh, Bratti," she said, with a
discomposed face, "I want to buy a great many confetti: I've got little
Lillo and Ninna at home. And nice coloured sweet things cost a great
deal. And they will not lik