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When she and Manisty, hurrying out for an early walk before the carriage started, had explored a corner of the dense oak woods below the palazzo on the hill, they had come across a deserted convent, with a contadino's family in one corner of it, and a ruinous chapel with a couple of dim frescoes attributed to Pinturicchio.
There was something tragic in their aspect; yet not a trace of abjectness; nothing that asked for pity. When Diana last caught sight of them, Marion had a contadino's child on her knee, in the corner of a third-class carriage, and Frobisher opposite he spoke a fluent Italian was laughing and jesting with the father. Marion, smiling, waved her hand, and the train bore them away.
There was a stable smell in the passage, and Lucy already knew that one of the further dens held the contadino's donkey and mule. 'Can we stay here? she said to herself, half laughing, half doubtful.
"Like!" cried Salvatore, pouring out another glass of wine and spitting on the discolored floor, over which hens were running; "what is any cristiana like?" And he repeated the contadino's proverb: "'La mugghieri è comu la gatta: si l'accarizzi, idda ti gratta!" "Perhaps the Inglese will get scratched to-night," said the first fisherman. "I don't mind," rejoined Salvatore.
On the green ledge which ran round the hollow were children tugging at a goat. Opposite was a contadino's house of gray stone. A water-wheel turned beside it, and a stream, brought down from the hills, ran chattering past, a white and dancing thread of water. Everything was very still and soft.
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