"_Si_," said Annina, "but that would be a miracle, Maria; and why should
we have a miracle, now that Lent and most of the holidays are past? _I_
believe it is a real vessel."

The others laughed, and, after a good deal of eager chattering on the
subject, it was quite generally admitted that the stranger was a _bona
fide_ craft, of some species or another, though all agreed she was not a
felucca, a bombarda, or a sparanara. All this time Ghita was thoughtful
and silent; quite as much so, indeed, as Tommaso himself, though from a
very different motive. Nothwithstanding all the gossip, and the many
ludicrous opinions of her companions, her eyes scarcely turned an
instant from the lugger, on which they seemed to be riveted by a sort of
fascination. Had there been one there sufficiently unoccupied to observe
this interesting girl, he might have been struck with the varying
expression of a countenance that was teeming with sensibility, and which
too often reflected the passing emotions of its mistress's mind. Now an
expression of anxiety, and even of alarm, would have been detected by
such an observer, if acute enough to separate these emotions, in the
liveliness of sentiment, from the more vulgar feelings of her
companions; and now, something like gleamings of delight and happiness
flashed across her eloquent countenance. The color came and went often;
and there was an instant, during which the lugger varied her course,
hauling to the wind, and then falling off again, like a dolphin at its
sports, when the radiance of the pleasure that glowed about her soft
blue eyes rendered the girl perfectly beautiful. But none of these
passing expressions were noticed by the garrulous group around the
stranger female, who was left very much to the indulgence of the
impulses that gave them birth, unquestioned, and altogether unsuspected.

Although the cluster of girls had, with feminine sensitiveness, gathered