When the bee has gathered all the honey that it can carry, it flies home.
Tacita’s heart was full. She wanted no more that night.
But there was no timidity in her return. The place was walled in as by a host of angels. The fold of her mother’s dress seemed yet within her grasp, and the flowing water was a song of peace.
The candle, burnt low, was where she had left it on the stair, and all was silent and deserted on the way up to her chamber.
CHAPTER X.
“You have taken the edge off the surprise I meant for you,” Elena said when Tacita told her of her midnight walk. “But there still remains something to please you with its novelty. Go and see the Basilica. The door is open all day. You can go alone, and will enjoy it more so than with company. When you come back I will have your new room all ready for you. It is in front, over the great veranda, a little to the right.”
“Shall I meet many people in the street?” Tacita asked.
“You will see very few; and they will all be on some business. We are an industrious community, and there is no one who has not something to do in the morning. It is only toward evening that we walk for pleasure.”
“Will any one speak to me?”
“Probably not; but they will bow to you. You have only to bow and smile in return.”