"Ma che!" exclaimed Daphne faintly, falling back, in her astonishment, upon Assunta's vocabulary.
"I have told no one, not even Giacomo," said Assunta, "but I saw it all. The noise had wakened me, and I followed, but I stopped when I saw that the divine one was there. Only I watched from the clump of cypress trees."
"Where was he?" asked Daphne with unsteady voice.
"Beyond the laurel trees," said Assunta. "Did not the Signorina see?"
The girl shook her head.
"How did you know that he was one of the divine?" she asked.
"Can I not tell the difference between mortal man and one of them?" cried the peasant woman scornfully. "It was the shining of his face, and the light about his hair, Signorina. Every look and every motion showed that he was not of this world. Besides, how could I see him in the dark if he were not the blessed Saint Sebastian? And who sent the dog away if it was not he?" she added triumphantly.
"But why should he appear to me?" asked Daphne. "I have no claim upon the help of the saints."
"Perhaps because the Signorina is a heretic," answered Assunta tenderly. "Our Lady must have special care for her if she sends out the holy ones to bring her to the fold."
The woman's face was alight with reverence and pride, and Daphne turned back to her flowers, shamed by these peasant folk for their belief in the immanence of the divine.