"And may Our Lady bless you and keep you, and send an angel to watch
over every hair of your blessed head!" said Ruggiero in a low voice as
he watched her graceful figure retreating in the distance.
CHAPTER IX.
After what had happened on the previous evening Ruggiero had expected
that Beatrice would treat him very differently. He had assuredly not
foreseen that she would call him from his seat by the porter's lodge,
ask an important service of him, and then enter into conversation with
him about the origin of his family and the story of his own life. His
slow but logical mind pondered on these things in spite of the
disordered action of his heart, which had almost choked him while he had
been talking with the young girl. Instead of going back to his brother,
he turned aside and entered the steep descending tunnel through the rock
which leads down to the sea and the little harbour.
Two things were strongly impressed on his mind. First, the nature of the
service he had done Beatrice in making that enquiry at the telegraph
office, and secondly her readiness to forget his own reckless conduct at
Tragara.
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