DAPHNE
sheep, then turned toward the house. Giacomo and Assunta saw her coming in her blue dress between the beds of flowers with the lambkin in her arms.
"Like our Lady!" said Assunta, hurrying to the rescue.
The two brown ones asked no questions, possibly because of the difficulty of conversing with the Signorina, possibly from some profounder reason.
"Maybe the others do not see him," thought the girl in perplexity. "Maybe I dream him, but this lamb is real."
She sat in the sun on the marble steps of the villa, the lamb on her lap. A yellow bowl of milk stood on the floor, close to the little white head that dangled from her blue knee. Daphne, acting on Assunta's directions, curled one little finger under the milk and offered the tip of it to the lamb to suck. He responded eagerly, and
58
