Artois to make her feel sad. Yet she continued to feel sad, to feel as
if some grievous change were at hand, as if she had returned to the
island to confront some untoward fate. It was very absurd of her. She
told herself that.

The excursion to Capri had been a cheerful one. She had enjoyed it.
But all the time she had been watching Vere, studying her, as she had
not watched and studied her before. Something had suddenly made her
feel unaccustomed to Vere. It might be the words of Gaspare, the
expression in the round eyes of the Marchesino, or something new, or
newly apparent, in Vere. She did not know. But she did know that now
the omission of Artois to mention Vere in his letter seemed to add to
the novelty of the child for her.

That seemed strange, yet it was a fact. How absolutely mysterious are
many of the currents of our being, Hermione thought. They flow far off
in subterranean channels, unseen by us, and scarcely ever realized,
but governing, carrying our lives along upon their deeps towards the
appointed end.

Gaspare saw that his Padrona was not quite as usual, and looked at her
with large-eyed inquiry, but did not at first say anything. After tea,
however, when Hermione was sitting alone in the little garden with a
book, he said to her bluntly:

"Che ha Lei?"

Hermione put the book down in her lap.

"That is just what I don't know, Gaspare."