So that when the hour of the midday meal arrived, and her young friend had not returned, old Orsola began to be a little uneasy about her.
Nor was her uneasiness lessened by her entire ignorance as to there being little or much, or no cause at all for it.

Never having left Venice before in her life, old Orsola was as much a stranger in Ravenna, and felt herself to be in an unknown world, as completely as an Englishman would in Japan.

Since she had been in Ravenna she had frequently heard the Pineta spoken of, and the old church out there in which her young friend was to do a portion of her task.

But she had heard them both mentioned as strange and wild places, not exactly like all the rest of the world.

And the old woman felt, that, for aught she knew, this Pineta, and the old church in the wilderness on the borders of it, might be a place full of dangers for a young girl all by herself.
And as the hours crept on, and no Paolina came, her uneasiness increased till she felt it impossible to sit quietly at home waiting for her any longer.