"Adone! Adone!" she cried breathlessly, "there were strange men by
the river to-day."

"Indeed," said Adone astonished, because strangers were never seen
there. Ruscino was near no highroad, and the river had long ceased to
be navigable.

"They asked me questions, but I put my hands to my ears and shook my
head; they thought I was deaf."

"What sort of men were they?" he asked with more attention, for there
were still those who lived by violence up in the forests which
overhung the valley of the Edera.

"How do I know? They were clothed in long woollen bed-gowns, and they
had boots on their feet, and on their heads hats shaped like
kitchen-pans."

Adone smiled. He saw men from a town, or country fellows who aped
such men, with a contempt which was born at once of that artistic
sense of fitness which was in him, and of his adherence to the
customs and habits of his province. The city-bred and city-clothed
man looked to him a grotesque and helpless creature, much sillier
than an ape.

"That sounds like citizens or townsfolk. What did they say?"

"I could not understand; but they spoke of the water, I think, for
they pointed to it and said a great deal which I did not understand,