"It's mine, all mine!" she cried as she left the foreigners. "But Guiseppe is so good he may have it all. I'll put it in my shoe and take it out piece by piece. He must guess what each one is. Oh, won't it be fun, and how glad he'll be!"
She laughed aloud as she hid her money. Her heart was so light that her joy broke from her lips in snatches of song as she tripped blithely back to Marta and Guiseppe.
Meanwhile Guiseppe had awakened in unusual ill–humor.
"Marta," he growled, "those confounded sticks hurt my back all night! Why didn't you clear them away? You must have seen them. I notice there are none where your idol slept."
He looked around. "Where is she, anyway?"
"She went, only for a moment, to watch the bathers."
"Watch the bathers? She has run away: that's what she has done."
Stopping to tie her shoe, Pappina heard Guiseppe's gruff voice swearing at Marta. He was standing in front of his wife, so neither could see the child coming down the road.
Marta's voice, perfectly calm, reached Pappina.
"Too bad she doesn't run away," the woman said, "but she'll return."