k before this, my
girl. Now you must make room for me." He got up behind her and took
the reins from under her arm. With the other arm it was necessary to
embrace her; she allowed it sedately. Then they ambled off together,
making a Darby and Joan affair of it.

But the sun was now close upon noon, burning upon them out of a sky of
brass. There was no wind, and the flies were maddening. After a while
he noticed that the girl simply stooped her head to the heat, as if she
were wilting like a picked flower. When he felt her heavy on his arm
he saw that he must stop. So he did, and plied her with wine from his
pocket-flask, feeding her drop by drop as she lay back against him. He
got bread out of his haversack and made her eat; she soon revived, and
then he learned the fact that she had eaten nothing since yesterday's
noon. "How should I eat," she asked, "when I have earned nothing?"

"Nohow, but by charity," he agreed. "Had Palencia no compassion?" She
grew dark and would not answer him at first; presently asked, had he
not seen Palencia?

"I agree," he said. "But let me ask you, if I may without
indiscretion, how did you propose to earn your bread in Palencia?"

"I would have worked in the fields for a day, sir," she told him; "but
not longer, for I have to get on."

"Where do you wish to go?"

"Away from here."

"To Valladolid?"

She looked up into his face--her head was still near his shoulder. "To
Valladolid? Never there."

This made him laugh. "To Palencia? Never there. To Valladolid?
Never there. Where then, lady of the sea-green eyes?"

She veiled her eyes quickly. "To Madrid, I suppose. I wish to work."

"Can you find work there?"

"Surely. It is a great city."

"Do you know it?"

"Yes, I was there long ago."

"What did you do there?"

"I worked. I was very well there." She sat up and looked back over
his shoulder. She had done that once or twice before, and now he asked
her what she was looking for. She desisted at once: "Nothing" was her
answer.

He made her drink from the flask again and gave her his pocket
handkerchief to cover her head. When she understood she laughed at him
without disguise. Did he think she feared the sun? She bade him look
at her neck--which was walnut brown, and sleek as satin; but when he
would have taken back his handkerchief she refused to give it, and put
it over her head like a hood, and tied it under her chin. She then
turned her