"The whole village was in tumult, and the hotel-keepers became alarmed, for the tourist season was just beginning. They met together and decided that Giuseppe and the girl must be sent inland until the child was born, and they subscribed the money. The night before they were to start there was a full moon and wind from the east, and all along the coast the sea shot up over the cliffs in silver clouds. It is a wonderful sight, and Maria said she must see it once more.
"'Do not go,' I said. 'I saw the priest go by, and some one with him. And the hotel-keepers do not like you to be seen, and if we displease them also we shall starve.'
"'I want to go,' she replied. 'The sea is stormy, and I may never feel it again.'
"'No, he is right,' said Giuseppe. 'Do not go—or let one of us go with you.'
"'I want to go alone,' she said; and she went alone.
"I tied up their luggage in a piece of cloth, and then I was so unhappy at thinking I should lose them that I went and sat down by my brother and put my arm round his neck, and he put his arm round me, which he had not done for more than a year, and we remained thus I don't remember how long.
"Suddenly the door flew open and moonlight and wind came in together, and a child's voice said laughing, 'They have pushed her over the cliffs into the sea.'
"I stepped to the drawer where I keep my knives.
"'Sit down again,' said Giuseppe—Giuseppe of all people! 'If she is dead, why should others die too?'
"'I guess who it is,' I cried, 'and I will kill him.'