There was misgiving in the heart of the old man as he stood at the
door of the Basilica looking after the light little form of Paolina
as she moved along the path, raised above the swamp on either side,
that led towards the edge of the forest.

The rays of the sun slanting from the eastward lighted up all the
path on which she was walking; and though the western front of the
church was still in shade, had begun to suck up the mists, and to
make the air feel at least somewhat more genial and wholesome. The
monk pushed back the cowl of his frock, which had hitherto been
drawn over his head, the better to watch the receding figure of the
girl as she moved slowly along the path; and still, as he gazed
after her, he shook his head from time to time with an uneasy sense
of misgiving.

It was not that the mere fact of the girl's entering the Pineta
alone seemed to him, accustomed as he was to the place and its
surroundings, to involve any danger to her of any sort, beyond,
indeed, the possibility of losing herself for a few hours in the
forest. The whole extent of it is very frequently traversed by the
men in the employment of the farmers to whom the Papal government
was in the practice of letting out the right of pasturage and
management of the wood. And these people were all known. There were,
it is true, encroachers on these rights, who might well be less
known, and less responsible persons; and possibly the forest paths
might sometimes be traversed by people bound on some errand of
smuggling. But nothing had ever happened of late years in the forest
to suggest the probability of any danger.