The girl smiled at him with sympathy.
"That is my bed," she said, simply. "Lie down and sleep, signorino."
Delarey hesitated for a moment. He thought of his companions. If they
should wake in the cave and miss him what would they think, what would
they do? Then he looked again at the bed. The longing to lie down on it
was irresistible. He pointed to the open door.
"When the sun comes will you wake me?" he said.
He took hold of his arm with one hand, and made the motion of shaking
himself.
"Sole," he said. "Quando c'è il sole."
The girl laughed and nodded.
"Si, signore--non dubiti!"
Delarey climbed up on to the mountainous bed.
"Buona notte, Maddalena!" he said, smiling at her from the pillow like a
boy.
"Buon riposo, signorino!"
That was the last thing he heard. The last thing he saw was the dark,
eager face of the girl lit up by the candle-flame watching him from the
farther room. Her slight figure was framed by the doorway, through which
a faint, sad light was stealing with the soft wind from the sea. Her
lustrous eyes were looking towards him curiously, as if he were something
of a phenomenon, as if she longed to understand his mystery.
Soon, very soon, he saw those eyes no more. He was asleep in the midst of
the Madonnas and the saints, with the blessed palm branch and the
crucifix and Maria Addolorata above his head.
The girl sat down on a chair just outside the door, and began to sing to
herself once more in a low voice: "Divina Pruvidenza, pruvvidìtimi;
Divina Pruvidenza, consulàtimi;
Divina Pruvidenza è granni assai;
Cu' teni fidi a Diù, 'un pirisci mai!"
Once, in his sleep, Delarey must surely have heard her song, for he began
to dream that he was Ulysses sailing across the purple seas along the
shores of an enchanted coast, and that he heard far off the sirens
singing, and saw their shadowy forms sitting among the rocks and
reclining upon the yellow sands. Then he bade his mariners steer the bark
towards the shore. But when he drew near the sirens changed into devout
peasant women, and their alluring songs into prayers uttered to the
Bambino and the Virgin. But one watched him with eyes that gleamed like
black jewels, and her lips smiled while they uttered prayers, as if they
could murmur love words and kiss the lips of men.
"Signorino! Signorino!"