d feed your goats and mules, and do just as you have
always done before, and say no word to any one about me."

The corners of her mouth fell a little.

"And then, perhaps, I shall come and take care of you again when you
want me, as I did before. But you must do just what I tell you, else
you will not see me again."

"Yes, I will, I will," she said, in a loud whisper, frightened at that
blank prospect.

They were silent a little while; and then Tessa, looking at her hand,
said--

"The Madre wears a betrothal ring. She went to church and had it put
on, and then after that, an other day, she was married. And so did the
cousin Nannina. But then _she_ married Gollo," added the poor little
thing, entangled in the difficult comparison between her own ease and
others within her experience.

"But you must not wear a betrothal ring, my Tessa, because no one must
know you are married," said Tito, feeling some insistance necessary.
"And the _buona fortuna_ that I gave you did just as well for betrothal.
Some people are betrothed with rings and some are not."

"Yes, it is true, they would see the ring," said Tessa, trying to
convince herself that a thing she would like very much was really not
good for her.

They were now near the entrance of the church again, and she remembered
her cocoons which were still in Tito's hand.

"Ah, you must give me the _boto_," she said; "and we must go in, and I
must take it to the Padre, and I must tell the rest of my beads, because
I was too tired before."

"Yes, you must go in, Tessa; but I will not go in. I must leave you
now," said Tito, too feverish and weary to re-enter that stifling heat,
and feeling that this was the least difficult way of parting with her.

"And not come back? Oh, where do you go?" Tessa's mind had never
formed an image of his whereabout or his doings when she did not see
him: he had vanished, and her thought, instead of following him, had
stayed in the same spot where he was with her.

"I shall come back some time, Tessa," said Tito, taking her under the
cloisters to the door of the church. "You must not cry--you must go to
sleep, when you have said your beads. And here is money to buy your
breakfast. Now kiss me, and look happy, else I shall not come again."

She made a great effort over herself as she put up her lips to kiss him,
and submitted to be gently turned round, with her face towards the door
of the church. Tito saw her enter; and then