Astonished at this, I paused in my hasty walk, and said with as much calmness as I could muster: "'What do you mean by that?
Have I the evil-eye, think you ?' "Curly-haired Pippa stretched out her arms to me--I had often caressed the little one, and given her sweetmeats and toys--but her mother held her back with a sort of smothered scream, and muttered: "'Holy Virgin! Pippa must not touch him; he is mad.' "Mad?
I looked at the woman and child in scornful amazement.

Then without further words I turned, and went swiftly away down the street out of their sight.

Mad! Was I indeed losing my reason?
Was this the terrific meaning of my sleepless nights, my troubled thoughts, my strange inquietude?
Fiercely I strode along, heedless whither I was going, till I found myself suddenly on the borders of the desolate Campagna.

A young moon gleamed aloft, looking like a slender sickle thrust into the heavens to reap an over-abundant harvest of stars.

I paused irresolutely.