ht hand crept up toward Miss Lydia's, which Colomba
still held captive.

"You really must be taken to some place where you can be properly cared
for, Signor della Rebbia," said Miss Nevil. "I shall never be able to
sleep in my bed, now that I have seen you lying here, so uncomfortable,
in the open air."

"If I had not been afraid of meeting you, Miss Nevil, I should have
tried to get back to Pietranera, and I should have given myself up to
the authorities."

"And why were you afraid of meeting her, Orso?" inquired Colomba.

"I had disobeyed you, Miss Nevil, and I should not have dared to look at
you just then."

"Do you know you make my brother do everything you choose, Miss Lydia?"
said Colomba, laughing. "I won't let you see him any more."

"I hope this unlucky business will soon be cleared up, and that you will
have nothing more to fear," said Miss Nevil. "I shall be so happy,
when we go away, to know justice has been done you, and that both your
loyalty and your bravery have been acknowledged."

"Going away, Miss Nevil! Don't say that word yet!"

"What are we to do? My father can not spend his whole life shooting. He
wants to go."

Orso's hand, which had been touching Miss Lydia's, dropped away, and
there was silence for a moment.

"Nonsense!" said Colomba. "We won't let you go yet. We have plenty of
things to show you still at Pietranera. Besides, you have promised to
paint my picture, and you haven't even begun it so far. And then I've
promised to compose you a _serenata_, with seventy-five verses. And
then--but what can Brusco be growling about? And here's Brandolaccio
running after him. I must go and see what's amiss."

She rose at once, and laying Orso's head, without further ceremony, on
Miss Lydia's lap, she ran after the bandits.

Miss Nevil, somewhat startled at finding herself thus left in sole
charge of a handsome young Corsican gentleman in the middle of a
_maquis_, was rather puzzled what to do next.

For she was afraid that any sudden movement on her part might hurt the
wounded man. But Orso himself resigned the exquisite pillow on which his
sister had just laid his head, and raising himself on his right arm, he
said:

"So you will soon be gone, Miss Lydia? I never expected your stay in
this unhappy country would have been a long one. And yet since you have
come to me here, the thought that I must bid you farewell has grown a
hundred times more bitter to me. I am only a poor lieutenan