Her attention was all upon the children, whom he, perhaps, had
more or less banished to Cracklimbo.
"Where are they going?" she repeated, trouble in her voice and
in her eyes.
Peter collected himself.
"The children? I don't know--I didn't ask. Home, aren't
they?"
"Home? Oh, no. They don't live hereabouts," she said. "I
know all the poor of this neighbourhood.--Ohe there! Children!
Children!" she cried.
But they were quite a hundred yards away, and did not hear.
"Do you wish them to come back?" asked Peter.
"Yes--of course," she answered, with a shade of impatience.
He put his fingers to his lips (you know the schoolboy
accomplishment), and gave a long whistle.
That the children did hear.
They halted, and turned round, looking, enquiring.
"Come back--come back!" called the Duchessa, raising her hand,
and beckoning.
They came back.
"The pathetic little imps," she murmured while they were on the
way.
The boy was a sturdy, square-built fellow, of twelve, thirteen,
with a shock of brown hair, brown cheeks, and sunny brown eyes;
with a precocious air of doggedness, of responsibility. He
wore an old tail-coat, the tail-coat of a man, ragged,
discoloured, falling to his ankles.
The girl was ten or eleven, pale, pinched; hungry, weary, and
sorry looking. Her hair too had been brown, upon a time; but
now it was faded to something near the tint of ashes, and had
almost the effect of being grey. Her pale little forehead was
crossed by thin wrinkles, lines of pain, of worry, like an old
woman's.
The Duchessa, pushing her bicycle, and followed by Peter, moved
down the road, to meet them. Peter had never been so near to
her before--at moments her arm all but brushed his sleeve. I
think he blessed the children.
"Where are you going?" the Duchessa asked, softly, smiling into
the girl's sad little face.
The girl had shown no fear of Peter; but apparently she was
somewhat frightened by this grand lady. The toes of her bare
feet worked nervously in the dust. She hung her head shyly,
and eyed her brother.
But the brother, removing his hat, with the bow of an Italian
peasant--and that is to say, the bow of a courtier--spoke up
bravely.
"To Turin, Nobility."
He said it in a perfectly matter-of-fact way, quite as he might
have said, "To the next farm-house."
The Duchessa, however, had not bargained for an answer of this
measure. Startled, doubting her ears perhaps, "To--Turin--!"
she exclaimed.