The Contessa was convinced that the girl's theory was utterly untenable,
and it was only to please her that she promised to speak of it if she
saw Corbario again. Soon afterward she decided to leave Rome for the
summer, and before going away she went once more to the villa. It was
now late in June, and she found Folco in the garden late in the
afternoon.

He looked ill and tired, but she thought him a little less thin than
when she had seen him last. He said that he, too, meant to leave Rome
within a few days, that he intended to go northward first to see an old
friend of his who had recently returned from South America, and that he
should afterwards go down to Calabria, to San Domenico, and spend the
autumn there. He had no news of Marcello. He looked thoughtfully down at
his hands as he said this in a tone of profound sorrow.

"Aurora has a fixed idea," said Maddalena. "While she was talking with
Marcello at the gap in the bank there was a small ship tossing about not
far from the shore."

"Well?" asked Corbario. "What of it?"

As he looked up from the contemplation of his hands Maddalena was struck
by his extreme pallor and the terrible hollowness of his eyes.

"How ill you look!" she exclaimed, almost involuntarily. "The sooner you
go away the better."

"What did Aurora say about the brigantine?" he asked earnestly, by way
of answer.