"What!"
"She won"t speak of you. She has told me nothing about last night. That is why I know so much."
"She has not--the Signorina has--not--?"
He stopped. A smile went over his face. It was sufficiently obvious that he understood Vere"s silence as merely a form of deceit, a coquettish girl"s cold secret from her mother.
"Signora, give me permission to speak to your daughter, and you will see whether it is you--or I--who understands her best."
"Very well, Marchese."
Hermione rang the bell. It was answered by Gaspare.
"Gaspare," said Hermione, "please go to the Signorina, tell her the Signor Marchese is here, and wishes very much to see her before he goes."
Gaspare"s face grew dark, and he hesitated by the door.
"Go, Gaspare, please."
He looked into his Padrona"s face, and went out as if rea.s.sured.
Hermione and the Marchese sat in silence waiting for him to return. In a moment the door was reopened.
"Signora, I have told the Signorina."
"What did she say?"
Gaspare looked at the Marchese as he answered.
"Signora, the Signorina said to me, "Please tell Madre that I cannot come to see the Signor Marchese.""
"You can go, Gaspare."
He looked at the angry flush on the Marchesino"s cheeks, and went out.
"Good-bye, Marchese."
Hermione got up. The Marchesino followed her example. But he did not go.
He stood still for a moment in silence. Then he lifted his head up with a jerk.
"Signora," he said, in a hard, uneven voice that betrayed the intensity of his excitement, "I see how it is. I understand perfectly what is happening here. You think me bad. Well, I am like other men, and I am not ashamed of it--not a bit. I am natural. I live according to my nature, and I do not come from your north, but from Naples--from Naples." He threw out his arm, pointing at a window that looked towards the city. "If it is bad to have the blood hot in one"s veins and the fire hot in one"s head and in one"s heart--very well! I am bad. And I do not care. I do not care a bit! But you think me a stupid boy. And I am not that. And I will show you." He drew his fingers together, and bent towards her, slightly lowering his voice. "From the first, from the very first moment, I have seen, I have understood all that is happening here.
From the first I have understood all that was against me--"
"Marchese--!"
"Signora, pardon me! You have spoken, the Signorina has spoken, and now it is for me to speak. It is my right. I come here with an honorable proposal, and therefore I say I have a right--"
He put his fingers inside his shirt collar and pulled it fiercely out from his throat.
"E il vecchio!" he exclaimed, with sudden pa.s.sion. "E il maledetto vecchio!"
Hermione"s face changed. There had been in it a firm look, a calmness of strength. But now, at his last words, the strength seemed to shrink. It dwindled, it faded out of her, leaving her not collapsed, but cowering, like a woman who crouches down in a corner to avoid a blow.
"It is he! It is he! He will not allow it, and he is master here."
"Marchese--"
"I say he is master--he is master--he has always been master here!"
He came a step towards Hermione, moving as a man sometimes moves instinctively when he is determined to make something absolutely clear to one who does not wish to understand.
"And you know it, and every one knows it--every one. When I was in the sea, when I saw the Signorina for the first time, I did not know who she was, where she lived; I did not know anything about her. I went to tell my friend about her--my friend, you understand, whom I trusted, to whom I told everything!--I went to him. I described the Signora, the Signorina, the boat to him. He knew who the ladies were; he knew directly. I saw it in his face, in his manner. But what did he say? That he did not know, that he knew nothing. I was not to come to the island.
No one was to come to the island but he. So he meant. But I--I was sharper than he, I who am so stupid! I took him to fish by night.
I brought him to the island. I made him introduce me to you, to the Signorina. That night I made him. You remember? Well, then--ever since that night all is changed between us. Ever since that night he is my enemy. Ever since that night he suspects me, he watches me, he hides from me, he hates me. Oh, he tries to conceal it. He is a hypocrite. But I, stupid as I am, I see it all. I see what he is, what he wants, I see all--all that is in his mind and heart. For this n.o.ble old man, so respected, with the white hairs and the great brain, what is he, what does he do? He goes at night to the Galleria. He consults with Maria Fortunata, she who is known to all Naples, she who is the aunt of that girl--that girl of the town and of the bad life, whom you have taken to be your servant here. You have taken her because he--he has told you to take her. He has put her here--"
"Marchese!"
"I say he has put her here that the Signorina--"
"Marchese, I forbid you to say that! It is not true."
"It is true! It is true! Perhaps you are blind, perhaps you see nothing.
I do not know. But I know that I am not blind. I love, and I see. I see, I have always seen that he--Emilio--loves the Signorina, that he loves her madly, that he wishes, that he means to keep her for himself. Did he not hide with her in the cave, in the Grotto of Virgil, that night when I came to serenade her on the sea? Yes, he took her, and he hid her, because he loves her. He loves her, he an old man! And he thinks--and he means--"
"Marchese--"
"He loves her; I say he loves her!"
"Marchese, I must ask you to go!"
"I say--"
"Marchese, I insist upon your going."
She opened the door. She was very pale, but she looked calm. The crouching woman had vanished. She was mistress of herself.
"Gaspare!" she called, in a loud, sharp voice that betrayed the inner excitement her appearance did not show.
"Signora," vociferated the Marchesino, "I say and I repeat--"
"Gaspare! Come here!"
"Signora!" cried a voice from below.
Gaspare came running.
"The Signore Marchese is going, Gaspare. Go down with him to the boat, please."
The Marchesino grew scarlet. The hot blood rushed over his face, up to his forehead, to his hair. Even his hands became red in that moment.