Lucia nodded and returned almost at once to her gay mood.

"But you are still wondering how I got my black hair and eyes up here,"
she laughed.

"Well, I will tell you. My mother came from your beautiful Napoli, and
Nana, that is my grandmother, says I inherited my foolish love of gay
clothes from her. Nana does not like gay clothes, but my father always
liked me to wear them."

"Then your mother is dead too?" Roderigo asked respectfully.

"When I was a little girl, and when Beppino was a tiny baby. Beppi is
my little brother," Lucia explained.

Roderigo's eyes were shining with delight. There was something in
Lucia's soft tones that filled his homesick heart with joy. She was so
different from most of the girls from the north, with their strange
high voices and unfriendly manners. If she wasn't exactly from the
south she was near it. He wanted to sit down beside her and tell her
all about his home and his family, for he was very young and very
homesick, but Lucia decreed otherwise.

"Now do see what you have done," she scolded suddenly. "You have kept
me talking here until the sun is well down, and I will have to hurry if
I want to see Maria and return home before Nana misses me. So much for
gabbing on the high road with some one who should be watching for
suspicious spies instead of asking questions," she finished with a
provoking toss of her head.