Hermes hid behind a stone and dashed out at his mistress to surprise her, expecting to be chased as usual, but Daphne could not run. With heavy feet and downcast eyes she walked along the green roadway, then, when her knees suddenly became weak, sat down on a stone and covered her face with her hands. She had not known until this moment how she had been hoping that two and two would not make four; she had not really believed that this could be the result of her letter of atonement. Her soul had traveled far since she wrote that letter, and it was hard to find the way back. Hiding the brown and purple distances of the Campagna came pictures of dim, candle-lighted spaces, of a thin face with a setting of black and white priestly garments, and in her ears was the sound of a voice endlessly intoning. It made up a vision of the impossible. She sat there a long, long time, and when she wakened to a consciousness of where she was, it was a whining voice that roused her. "Signorina, for the love of heaven, give me a few soldi, for I am starving." Daphne looked up and was startled, and yet old beggar women were common enough sights here among the hills. This one had an evil look, with her cunning, half-shut eyes. The girl shook her head. "I have no money with me," she remarked. "But Signorina, so young, so beautiful, surely she has money with her." A dirty brown hand came all too close to Daphne's face, and she sprang to her feet. "I have spoken," she said severely, giving a little stamp. "I have none. Now go away." The whining continued, unintermittent. The old woman came closer, and her hand touched the girl's skirt. Wrenching herself away, Daphne found herself in the grasp of two skinny arms, and an actual physical struggle began. The girl had no time for fear, and suddenly help came. A firm hand caught the woman's shoulder, and the victim was free. "Are you hurt?" asked Apollo anxiously. She shook her head, smiling. "Frightened?" "No. Don't you always rescue me?" "But this is merest accident, my being here. It really isn't safe for you alone on these roads." "I knew you were near." "And yet, I have just this minute come round the hill. You could not possibly have seen me." "I have ways of knowing," said Daphne, smiling demurely. A faint little bleat interrupted them. "Oh, oh!" cried the girl, "she is running away with Hermes!" Never did Apollo move more swiftly than he did then! Daphne followed, with flying feet. He reached the beggar woman, held her, took the lamb with one hand from her and handed it to Daphne. There followed a scene which the girl remembered afterward with a curious sense of misgiving and of question. The thief gave one glance at the beautiful, angry face of the man, then fell at his feet, groveling and beseeching. What she was saying the girl did not know, but her face and figure bore a look of more than mortal fear.