ghts,
and was now hastily stepping down the stones, waving her pocket
handkerchief.

She had a small bundle under her arm, and her dress was mean and poor.
Yet she had a distinguished, if somewhat savage way of throwing back
her head; and the dark tress that wreathed it, on her, was like a
diadem.

"What have we to wait for?" enquired the curato. "There is some one
coming, who wants to go to Capri. With your permission. Padre. We shall
not go a whit the slower. It is a slight young thing, but just
eighteen."

At that moment the young girl appeared from behind the wall that bounds
the winding path.

"Laurella!" cried the priest, "and what has she to do in Capri?"

Antonio shrugged his shoulders. She came up with hasty steps, her eyes
fixed straight before her.

"Ha! l'Arrabiata! good morning!" shouted one or two of the young
boatmen. But for the curato's presence, they might have added more; the
look of mute defiance with which the young girl received their welcome,
appeared to tempt the more mischievous among them.

"Good day, Laurella!" now said the priest; "how are you? Are you 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 carlin, 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 young 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 vigorous push
against the pier, and the little boat flew out into the open