Halfway up the hill Daphne paused and looked back. Below the yellow walls of the Villa Accolanti, standing in a wide garden with encompassing poplars and cypresses, sketched great grassy slopes and gray-green olive orchards. The water from the stream, gathered in a stone basin at the foot of the hill, flowed in a marble conduit through the open hall. As she looked she was aware of two old brown faces anxiously gazing after her. Giacomo and Assunta were chattering eagerly in the doorway, the black of his butler's dress and the white of his protecting apron making his wife's purple calico skirt and red shoulder shawl look more gay. They caught the last flutter of the girl's blue linen gown as it disappeared among the ilexes. "E molto bello, very beautiful, the Signorina," remarked Assunta. "What gray eyes she has, and how she walks!" "But she knows no speech," responded her husband. "Ma che!" shouted Assunta scornfully, "she talks American. You couldn't expect them to speak like us over there. They are not Romans in America." "My brother Giovanni is there," remarked Giacomo. "She could have learned of him." "She is like the Contessa," said Assunta. "You would know they are sisters, only this one is younger and has something more sweet." "This one is grave," objected Giacomo as he polished. "She does not smile so much. The Contessa is gay. She laughs and sings and her cheeks grow red when she drinks red wine, and her hair is more yellow." "She makes it so!" snapped Assunta. "I have heard they all do in Rome," said Giacomo. "Some day I would like to go to see." "To go away, to leave this girl here alone with us when she had just arrived!" interrupted Assunta. "I have no patience with the Contessa." "But wasn't his Highness's father sick? And didn't she have to go? Else they wouldn't get his money, and all would go to the younger brother. You don't understand these things, you women." Giacomo's defense of his lady got into his fingers, and added much to the brightness of the spoons. The two talked together now, as fast as human tongues could go. Assunta. She could have taken the Signorina. Giacomo. She couldn't. It's fever. Assunta. She could have left her maid. Giacomo. Thank the holy father she didn't! Assunta. And without a word of language to make herself understood. Giacomo. She can learn, can't she? Assunta. And with the cook gone, too! It's a great task for us. Giacomo. You'd better be about it!... Going walking alone in the hills! And calling me "Excellency." There's no telling what Americans will do. Assunta. She didn't know any better. When she has been here a week she won't call you "Excellency"! I must make macaroni for dinner. Giacomo. Ma che! Macaroni? Roast chicken and salad. Assunta. Niente! Macaroni! Giacomo. Roast chicken! You are a pretty one to take the place of the cook!