She suddenly loved the smile with which he greeted her.
"You, at least, do not think that I am mad to come to Muro, do you ?" she asked, standing beside him on the platform while Elettra was handing out her smaller belongings.
"Not at all," answered the old man.

"You are coming to take care of your own people, and it is a good deed.

Good deeds generally seem eccentric to society--and considering their rarity, that is not extraordinary." He smiled again, and Veronica laughed.
"Your carriage is here," said Don Teodoro.

"May I take you to it?
Will you give me the tickets, Elettra?
They take them at the gate." Veronica felt a new thrill of joyous freedom and independence, as for the first time in her life she set her little foot upon the step of her own carriage, and glanced at the simple, well-appointed turnout.

The coachman sat alone in the middle of the box, a broad-shouldered, clean-shaven young fellow of six-and-twenty, in a dull green livery with white facings--the colours of the Serra.
"You would not even have a footman," observed Don Teodoro.
"No--not I!" she laughed, still standing in the carriage.