Assunta shrugged her shoulders.

"Young men?" inquired Daphne.

The peasant woman looked sharply at her, then smiled.

"I saw one man yesterday," said Daphne, her forehead puckered
painfully in what Assunta mistook for a look of fear. Her
carefully prepared phrases could get no nearer the problem she
wished solved.

"Ma che! agnellina mia, my little lamb!" cried the peasant
woman, grasping Daphne's hand in order to kiss her fingers, "you
are safe, safe with us. No Americans nor English shall dare to
look at the Signorina in the presence of Giacomo and me."


CHAPTER IV

lt was not a high wall, that is, not very high. Many a time in
the country Daphne had climbed more formidable ones, and there
was no reason why she should not try this. No one was in sight
except a shepherd, watching a great flock of sheep. There was a
forgotten rose garden over in that field; had Caesar planted it,
or Tiberius, centuries ago? Certainly no one had tended it for a
thousand years or two, and the late pink roses grew unchecked.
Daphne slowly worked her way to the top of the wall; this close
masonry made the proceeding more difficult than it usually was at
home. She stood for a moment on the summit, glorying in the