“Well, you can’t always be sure,” the Captain said, his eyes twinkling, “if there was any danger you’d be sure to be in the heart of it.”

“No, I will close my eyes tight,” Lucia promised, “and walk in the other direction, that is, unless it was something very, very important.”

“I thought so.  Well, I guess you’ll be safe here, safer than you’ve ever been before, anyway,” the Captain said, “and now good-by.”

He kissed her low, broad forehead, very gently.

“Good-by, fairy godfather, come back soon.”  Lucia tried not to let her voice tremble.

The Captain got into the car hurriedly.  He waved to the group on the steps until he was out of sight.

Lucia went back into the house, but the spacious rooms and high ceilings only added to her unhappiness.  She almost longed for the comfort of the tiny old cottage and the familiar sight of the green bed.

She wandered about listlessly; she was quite alone.  Nana had gone back to her lace making, and Beppi was in the garden.  The old man and his wife—­the Captain’s faithful servants—­were in the kitchen.

In the library Lucia stopped before the rows of books and tried to read their titles.  But she gave it up and looked at the pictures, that amused her for a little while, for she thought they were beautiful, but she did not understand them.  She could not give anything her undivided attention for her thoughts were on the way with the Captain, and she was fighting against the unhappiness that threatened to overpower her.

“Surely he will come back,” she said, to a copy of Andrea del Sarto’s St. John that hung above the mantel.  “This cruel war has taken my real father; it cannot take my godfather too.”  She gave herself a little shake, “It is that I am lonely that I think such sad thoughts, I will go out to the garden and pick flowers for the soldiers.”

Accordingly she found her basket and scissors and spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden.  When her basket was piled high she put on her hat very carefully, regarding it from every angle of the Florentin mirror.  It was the first hat she had ever owned and she was very proud of it.

When it was tilted to her satisfaction she took up the basket and went out by the garden gate.

The hospital was a little over a mile away.  Lucia had visited it with Captain Riccardi.  It had formerly been a private villa and its terraced gardens went down to the water’s edge.

Lucia knew the way and she loitered along, enjoying the newness of the scenes about her.  Everything and everybody were so different, the fishermen with their bright sashes and Roman striped stocking caps, the old women and the young girls in their bright dresses, with great gold loops hanging from their ears.  Even the sound of their voices was different as they called out greetings to one another.

Lucia decided that the very first thing she would do when the Captain came home would be to ask him for a pair of gold earrings.