And the girl could indeed see for herself that the person approaching was alone. She had understood the fact that the horses belonged to this person, and her hope was in the horses; they could take her away--away from here! As soon as Dennison was near enough he began speaking in Italian, and he continued to talk to her as he climbed over the wall, calming her, explaining and arranging. Then he turned the phaeton, and they all took their places within, the Swede sitting between the two men on the broad seat. Dennison drove down the lane, still talking encouragingly. When they reached the main road he took a direction which led them away from Casa Colombina and Tre Ponti. "We're in for it!" he said in English to Gray. "I shall take her to the nearest railway station--not the one you know, but another--and pack her off to Florence; there her consul can see to her. I have explained it to her clearly. She is glad enough to go." "What was it all about, anyhow?" "Didn't you comprehend? That harlequin (I'll mention no names, and then she won't be startled) was no less a person than the lover of your Madonna beauty--the youth she expects to marry. During the game he was flirting, or trying to flirt after his fashion, with our present companion. This was too much for the older woman. Hence the knife." "Which I have in my pocket, by-the-bye." "Don't take it out now; you can throw it away after we have disposed of our Scandinavian. I suppose she has never before seen such a thing as a brandished weapon of that sort. It's a knife used by the peasants about here to cut hides with; your Madonna probably took it from among Filippo's tools somehow while the festivities were going on. She must have been jealous even then." "I told you that her laugh wasn't natural. 'Twas an awful sight, though! She would certainly have murdered the girl if we hadn't happened to be standing just where we were." "Very likely," answered Dennison. "Tchk, tchk," he added to the horses. "I hope she is safely locked up by this time." "Locked up! She is probably dancing with her harlequin." "You don't mean to say that you let her go?" "Quite so. She is all right now; she has come back to her senses. I had six words with the youth, however; he'll treat her better--for the present, at least; I have frightened him." "What did you mean when you said you'd send him away?" "That was what brought her round. He has had a hankering for a long time to emigrate to--to the land of the free; he would go in a minute if his passage were paid and he had a hundred dollars in his pocket--go and never think of her again; she knows this. But the land of the free doesn't want him--he is incorrigibly lazy; and his departure would end her as far as I am concerned--make her perfectly useless." "Good heavens! you're not going to take that murderess back?" "I can't take her back without sending her away first. And that I haven't done," answered Dennison.