coming with us to Capri?"

"If I may, padre."

"Ask Antonio there; the boat is his. Every man is master of his own,
I say, as God is master of us all."

"There is half a carlino, if I may go for that?" said Laurella,
without looking at the young boatman.

"You need it more than I," he muttered, and pushed aside some
orange-baskets to make room: he was to sell the oranges in Capri,
which little isle of rocks has never been able to grow enough for
all its visitors.

"I do not choose to go for nothing," said the girl, with a slight
frown of her dark eyebrows.

"Come, child," said the priest; "he is a good lad, and had rather
not enrich himself with that little morsel of your poverty. Come
now, and step in," and he stretched out his hand to help her, "and
sit you down by me. See, now, he has spread his jacket for you, that
you may sit the softer. Young folks are all alike; for one little
maiden of eighteen they will do more than for ten of us reverend
fathers. Nay, no excuse, Tonino. It is the Lord's own doing, that
like and like should hold together."

Meantime Laurella had stepped in, and seated herself beside the
padre, first putting away Antonio's jacket without a word. The young
fellow let it lie, and, muttering between his teeth, he gave one