"But I want to buy a lottery ticket before we leave Naples," said the girl.
"Befana will fill your stockings with ashes if you do," said Rafael.
"Everybody in Italy buys lottery tickets. Why should not I?" asked Edith perversely.
"I do it not," said Rafael shortly.
"That is because your wonderful king does not believe in it," she answered.
"Is that not a good reason?" asked the boy. He looked at her with the same expression he wore in Venice, when she spoke slightingly of the superstitions of his country, and as she knew him better now, she laughed and agreed with him.
"I did not really mean to do it," she said, and added, "Tell me more about Befana."
"How I used to shake in my bed when I heard her bell ring!" he said with a laugh.
"Did you really hear it ring?" asked Edith.
He looked at her drolly, answering, "Of course I heard her bell. And often I heard the sheep talking to one another on Twelfth-night; or at least I thought I did."