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Women were busy in the vineyards gathering their burdens and bearing them to the tubs for the white feet of the girls who trod the vintage. Nearing his goal, he saw that the house had an unoccupied air, and he found the big gates closed. Since no one appeared in answer to his summons, he made his way around to the rear, where he discovered Aliandro sunning himself. "Well, Aliandro!" he cried.
"What is your belief?" "I know a man who has seen him." "Who?" "Aliandro." "Bah! Aliandro is such a liar!" exclaimed Savigno. "However that may be, he has seen things in his time. He says that Cardi is not what people suppose him to be a brigand except when it suits his desires. That is why he comes and goes and the carabinieri can never trace him.
As for Lucrezia, she is demented, and they do nothing all day but scheme and plan with Aliandro, who is himself as bad as any bandit. I have no voice with them; they do with me as they will." She hid her face in her trembling fingers and wept softly. "And to think we were all so happy with Martel!" "Nevertheless, somebody must dissuade them from this enterprise.
"He must be a well-grown lad, by now," murmured Vittoria. "Aliandro, I fear, is dead. But it is a long road to Terranova; we have changed." "Yes everything has changed. My happiness has changed to misery, my hope to despair, my love to hate." "Poor sister mine!" Vittoria sympathized. "Be patient. No wound is too deep for time to heal. The scar will remain, but the pain will disappear.
"It is useless to argue," she said, firmly. "I am like rock. I have begun already and I have accomplished more than Colonel Neri and his carbineers. I see Aliandro coming now, and I think he has news. He knows many things of which the soldiers do not dream, for he is one of the people. You will excuse me?" "Of course, but I can't let you undertake so dangerous a task without a protest.
"This is good weather for rheumatism." The old man peered up at him uncertainly, muttering: "The saints in heaven are smiling to-day." "Where are the Contessa Margherita and her aunt?" "They are where their business takes them, I dare say. Ma che?" "Gone to Messina, perhaps?" "Perhaps." "Visiting friends?" "Exactly." Aliandro nodded. "They are visiting friends in Messina."
So long as the soldiers went tramping back and forth he laughed. Then he must have heard something perhaps it was Aliandro whetting his blade at any rate he was gone in an hour, in a moment, in a second. Now I know nothing more." "She took the Donna Teresa with her?" "Yes, squealing like a cat. She is too old to be of use, but the Contessa could not leave her behind, I suppose."
"Do you believe in the vendetta?" Norvin asked, curiously. "Who does not? The law is full of tricks. There is a saying which runs, 'The gallows for the poor, justice for the fool!" "You are a Mafiosa," cried the scandalized aunt. "It is one of Aliandro's sayings. He has lived a life! He often tells me stories." "Aliandro is a terrible liar," Martel declared.
You, too, are unhappy, my dearest. Let us go home. Home!" She let her hands fall idle and stared ahead of her, seeing the purple hills behind Terranova, the dusty gray-green groves of olive-trees, the brilliant fields of sumach, the arbors bent beneath their weight of blushing fruit. "I want to see the village people again, my father's relatives, old Aliandro, and the Notary's little boy "
Aliandro's loose lips parted over his toothless gums and he mumbled: "Illustrissimo, the accursed affliction is worse." "Impossible! Then why these capers? My dear Aliandro, you are shamming. Why, you came leaping like a goat." "As God is my judge, carino, I can sleep only in the sun. It is like the tortures of the devil, and my bones creak like a gate."
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