The balcony however was in deep shade, and a breath of cool air came up from the lake.

Dalgetty could not resist it.

She glanced at her mistress's door and listened a moment.

All silence.
She put down her work and slipped through the glass passage on to the broad stone balcony.
There her ears were suddenly greeted with a sound of riotous shouting and singing on the road, and Alfredo ran out from the dining-room to join her.
'_Festa!_'-- he said, nodding to her in a kindly patronage, and speaking as he might have spoken to a child--'_Festa!_' And Dalgetty began to see a number of carts adorned with green boughs and filled with singing people, coming along the road.

Each cart had a band of girls dressed alike--red, white, orange, blue, and so forth.
Alfredo endeavoured to explain that these were Romans who after visiting the church of the 'Madonna del Divino Amore' in the plain were now bound to an evening of merriment at Albano.