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IN MAREMMA.

CHAPTER XXXV.

'THERE have you been?' said Este with anger and with doubt, when she returned as the afternoon shadows grew into the gloom of evening, and the Ave Maria was tolled or rung by all the belfries along the hills or coast.

'I have been to see him,' said Musa wearily. 'We had one of us to thank him, and you could not. I set out before dawn. It is a long way. Let me rest but a little and I will tell you all.'

She went into her own chamber, made fast the stone door, bathed her face, changed