t, my dear."

"Good-night."

CHAPTER XII

Olive was tired, and now that she was alone she knew that she was also
a little afraid, so that she lingered on the way and went slowly up
the stairs of the house in the Piazza Tolomei. Carmela answered her
ring at the bell; her face was swollen and her eyes were red with
crying, and the little lamp she carried shook in her hand.

"Oh, Olive," she said, "Orazio says he will not marry her. He has
heard such things about her from his friends, and even in the Cafe
Greco.... It is a scandal."

She put her lamp down on the floor, and took out her handkerchief to
wipe away the tears that were running down her cheeks.

Olive came in and shut the door after her.

"Where is he?"

"They are all in the dining-room. Aunt sent Carolina out for the
evening, and it is a good thing, because of course in the kitchen she
could hear everything. He sent a message to say he could not go to the
Palio, and Gemma's head ached when she came back from church, so we
all stayed in. He came half an hour ago--"

"What does Gemma say?"

"Nothing. She looks like a stone."

"I must go through the dining-room to get to my room," Olive said
uncertainly. "What shall I do? Pass through very quickly or wait here
in the passage?"

"Better go in," advised Carmela. "They may not even notice you. He
keeps on talking so loudly, and aunt and Maria are crying."

"Poor things! I am so sorry!"

The two girls clung together for a moment, and Olive's eyes filled
with tears as she kissed her cousin's poor trembling lips. Then
Carmela stooped to pick up her lamp and put it out, and they went on
together down the passage.

The lamp was lit on the table that Carolina had laid for supper before
she went out, and the Menotti sat in their accustomed places as though
they were at a meal. Orazio Lucis was walking to and fro and
gesticulating. His boots creaked, and the noise they made grated on
the women's nerves as he talked loudly and incessantly, and they
listened. Maria kept her face hidden in her hands, but Gemma held
herself erect as ever, and she did not move when the two girls came
in, though her sombre eyes were full of shame.

"What shall I say to my friends in Lucca?" raved Orazio. "What shall I
say to my mother? Even if I still consented to marry you she would not
permit it; she would refuse to live in the same house with such a
person--and she would be right. _Mamma mia!_ She is always right.