"You are not hurt?" he repeated "I am sorry that I did not get here sooner, before that fellow touched you."
She held out her hand to him with a little impetuous movement.
"Thanks to you. No, Signor," she said, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. "Oh, how grateful we are, are we not, Margharita?"
"Indeed, indeed we are. The Signor has saved us from a terrible danger."
He laughed a little awkwardly. Where is the Englishman who likes to be thanked?
"It is nothing. The fellows were arrant cowards. But what was the carriage doing here?"
He pointed along the road. Already the clumsy vehicle had become a black speck in the distance, swaying heavily from side to side from the pace at which it was being driven, and almost enveloped in a cloud of dust.
Adrienne shook her head. Margharita had turned away, with her face buried in her hands.
"I cannot imagine. Perhaps they were brigands, and intended to carry us off for a ransom."
The Englishman shrugged his shoulders.