Immediately he had spoken he was aware of his indiscretion. But
Hermione had not noticed it. He saw by her eyes that she was far away
in Sicily. And when the boat slipped into the Saint's Pool, and
Gaspare came to the water's edge to hold the prow while they got out,
she rose from her seat slowly, and almost reluctantly, like one
disturbed in a dream that she would fain continue.

"Have you seen the Signorina, Gaspare?" she asked him. "Has she been
out?"

"No, Signora. She is still in the house."

"Still reading!" said Artois. "Vere must be quite a book-worm!"

"Will you stay to dinner, Emile?"

"Alas, I have promised the Marchesino Isidoro to dine with him. Give
me a cup of tea /a la Russe/, and one of Ruffo's cigarettes, and then
I must bid you adieu. I'll take the boat to the Antico Giuseppone, and
then get another there as far as the gardens."

"One of Ruffo's cigarettes!" Hermione echoed, as they went up the
steps. "That boy seems to have made himself one of the family
already."

"Yet I wish, as I said in the cave, that I had put a knife into him
under the left shoulder-blade--before this morning."

They spoke lightly. It seemed as if each desired for the moment to get