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She was a fool to die, and I shall not soon forgive her for leaving me so. If she came back I would punish her, torment her, make her scream with pain if she came back oh, Gemma! carissima " The hard, hot eyes filled with tears. He tried to drag his hand away, but the girl held it fast. "You are kind and good," he said presently in a changed voice.
Maria hurried after her, but the younger sister caught at Olive's hand. "You must not listen to Gemma. Come, we will walk together. Let her go on; she cannot forgive your nose for being straight." A large parcel addressed to Miss Agar was brought to the house a few weeks later. Olive was out giving a lesson when it came, and Gemma turned it over, examining the post-mark and the writing.
"I think," said Gemma; "that it would be quite useless to wait for the chance of his being transferred to Ravenna. We must make the attempt at Brisighella, and we have no time to lose. Cesare, you and I had better go over the plan of the fortress together, and see whether we can think out anything. I have an idea in my head, but I can't get over one point."
They are so lean and haggard and yellow that their bones seem to be piercing through their discoloured skins." "The Palio! I think Signor Lucis is coming to Siena to see it," Olive said. "Is that the man your cousin Gemma is to marry?" the dressmaker asked curiously. "I had heard that she was engaged, but one hears so many things. Do you like her?"
"Gemma has been quite jealous of the unknown owner, but she says it is much larger than any of hers." The girls' eyes met but neither spoke, and Orazio babbled on, unheeding: "Her feet are carini, and I can span her ankle with my thumb and forefinger; but you are small made too, signorina." Carolina poked her head in at the door.
She asked many and minute questions about his relations, because 'that too is very important'; asked him to describe the ceremony of marriage as performed by the ritual of the Russian Church, and was in raptures already at Gemma in a white dress, with a gold crown on her head. 'She's as lovely as a queen, she murmured with motherly pride, indeed there's no queen like her in the world!
Olive said eagerly when they had all kissed her. "I want to see the Duomo first, and then the Palazzo Vecchio but that is only open in the mornings, is it? And this is the Piazza Tolomei, so the house where Pia lived must be quite near." Gemma stared, but made no attempt to answer, and Maria looked confused. "I am afraid you will find us all very stupid, cara," said Carmela, apologetically.
The wind, not cold, but hot, almost sultry, smote against the trees, the roof of the house, its walls, and the street; it instantaneously snatched off Sanin's hat, crumpled up and tangled Gemma's curls. Sanin's head was on a level with the window-sill; he could not help clinging close to it, and Gemma clutched hold of his shoulders with both hands, and pressed her bosom against his head.
From the gate they were to retire fighting, and cover the retreat of a second band of armed and mounted smugglers, who would carry him off into a safe hiding-place in the hills. The only person in the little group who knew nothing of the plan was Gemma; it had been kept from her at Martini's special desire. "She will break her heart over it soon enough," he had said.
A gardener was in a leisurely way scraping the path with a spade, and a decrepit old woman in a black woollen cloak was hobbling across the garden walk. Sanin could not for one instant mistake this poor old creature for Gemma; and yet his heart leaped, and he watched attentively the retreating patch of black. Seven! chimed the clock on the tower. Sanin stood still.
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