Round the corner was the
Siena gate, from which the road to England started, and she
could hear the rumble of the diligence which was going down
to catch the night train to Empoli. The next moment it was
upon her, for the highroad came towards her a little before
it began its long zigzag down the hill.
The driver slackened, and called to her to get in. He
did not know who she was. He hoped she might be coming to
the station.
"Non vengo!" she cried.
He wished her good-night, and turned his horses down the
corner. As the diligence came round she saw that it was empty.
"Vengo . . ."
Her voice was tremulous, and did not carry. The horses
swung off.
"Vengo! Vengo!"
He had begun to sing, and heard nothing. She ran down
the road screaming to him to stop--that she was coming; while
the distance grew greater and the noise of the diligence
increased. The man's back was black and square against the
moon, and if he would but turn for an instant she would be
saved. She tried to cut off the corner of the zigzag,
stumbling over the great clods of earth, large and hard as
rocks, which lay between the eternal olives. She was too
late; for, just before she regained the road, the thing
swept past her, thunderous, ploughing up choking clouds of
moonlit dust.
She did not call any more, for she felt very ill, and
fainted; and when she revived she was lying in the road,
with dust in her eyes, and dust in her mouth, and dust down
her ears.
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