He longed for night, for he was weary, and the loss of blood had affected him more than he would confess. He felt a violent pain in his hand, seated himself on a stool, and loosened the bandage. The repressed blood sprang forwards again, and his hand was much swollen around the wound. He washed it carefully, and held it long in the cold water. When he withdrew it he could plainly see the marks of Lauretta's teeth. "She was right," he said to himself; "I was a brute and deserved no better. I will send her back her handkerchief to-morrow morning by Giuseppe, for me shall she never see again." He washed the handkerchief carefully, and spread it out in the sun, after he had bound up his maimed limb again as well as he could with his left hand and his teeth. Then he threw himself upon his bed and closed his eyes. The bright moon and the pain of his hand awoke him out of a half sleep. He sprang up to calm the throbbing beat of the blood in cold water, when he heard a rustling at his door. "Who is there?" he said, and opened it. Lauretta stood before him. Without saying much she entered. She threw aside the handkerchief she had worn over her head, and placed a basket on the table. Then she drew a deep sigh. "You are come for your handkerchief," he said; "you might have spared yourself the trouble, for tomorrow morning I should have asked Giuseppe to take it to you." "It is not for the handkerchief," she answered, hastily; "I have been on the mountain gathering herbs that are good for wounds--there!" and she raised the cover of her basket. "Too much trouble," he said, without any harshness--"too much trouble. It is better already--much better; and even if it were worse, I have deserved it. What do you do here so late? If any one were to see you--you know how they talk, though they know not what they say?" "I do not trouble myself about them," she answered vehemently; "but your hand I _must_ see, and put herbs upon it, for you can never do it with your left." "I assure you that there is no necessity for such trouble!" "Then let me see it, that I may believe it." She seized his hand before he could prevent her, and untied the bandage. When she saw the angry swelling, she shrank together, and screamed "Jesus, Maria!" "It is a little swollen," he said; "a day and a night will put it all right again." She shook her head. "You will not be at sea again for a week!" "The day after to-morrow, I hope--what does it matter?" In the mean time she had found a basin, and washed the wound afresh, which he suffered her to do like a child; then she laid the healing leaves of the herbs upon it, which soon assuaged the burning pain, and bound up the hand with strips of linen which she had brought with her.