offensive that the girls turned
and ran. They pelted down the path anywhere, quite oblivious of the
direction they were taking, and, as a matter of fact, branching yet
farther away from their original route. They could hear footsteps and
giggling laughter behind, and they were growing extremely terrified when
to their immense relief they saw in front of them an elderly peasant
woman coming from the town. She had a bright yellow handkerchief round
her neck and carried on her head a big basket containing flasks of oil,
loaves of bread, and some vegetables. She stopped in some astonishment
as Lorna and Irene rushed panting up to her, then glimpsing the lads she
seemed to grasp the situation, and called out angrily to them in
Italian, whereupon they promptly and rapidly disappeared. As she had
reached the gateway of her own garden she motioned the girls to enter,
and they gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to seek sanctuary.
A large archway led into a paved courtyard, on one side of which was a
little brown house, and on the other a small chapel, quite a picture
with its quaint half-Moorish tower and two large bells. Their new friend
seemed to be the caretaker, for she escorted them inside to show them,
with much pride, an altar-piece attributed to Perugino and some ancient
faded frescoes of haloed saints. She gave them a peep into her house
too, and they were deeply interested to see the unfamiliar foreign home,
not comfortable according to British or American ideas of comfort, but
with a certain charm of its own. There was a big dark room on the ground
floor with an orange press, various agricultural implements, and
numberless baskets for gathering fruit; there was a bare kitchen with a
wood fire and a table spread with cups and dishes; then up a winding
stair was a bedroom with walls colored sky blue, and a veranda that
looked down over a glorious orange orchard.

"Oh, I'd adore to go out there!" said Irene, pointing to the path that
led between the fruit-laden trees, and their hostess evidently divined
her meaning, for she not only led her guests into the garden, but
fetched a ladder, climbed a tree, and plucked each of them a whole
cluster of oranges surrounded by a bunch of leaves.

The girls were so delighted with their entertainment in this Italian
cottage that they hardly wished to tear themselves away, yet a vision of
Miss Bickford's reproachful face began to hover before their eyes, and
Lorna at last