—Heine.
CHAPTER II
The Conquest of Guiseppe
When Pappina awoke the next morning, the little east room where she lay was flooded with sunshine. She looked about her wonderingly.
"Where am I? Is this a dream?" she asked herself softly.
For a few moments she lay with half–closed, sleepy eyes looking in the golden light at the white curtains draped at the window.
"Pretty, pretty," she murmured. Her little hand took up the coverlet. It was white! She turned over quickly: there was a white covering on her pillow! Surely this was not home! She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and there was brown–haired Marta smiling at her from the other side of the room.
Marta was an Englishwoman. While traveling through Italy as maid to the Countess Filota, she had met and fallen in love with the handsome professional story–teller, Guiseppe Capasso. After their marriage he had turned his stock of stories to account by setting up as a puppet showman.