"Lei si riposi!" he whispered, as he set her down.
She shut her eyes, leaning back against the seat. She heard Artois get in, the boat pushed off, the splash of the oars. But she did not open her eyes, until presently an instinct told her there was something she must see. Then she looked.
The boat was pa.s.sing under the blessing hand of San Francesco, under the light of the Saint, which was burning calmly and brightly.
Hermione moved. She bent down to the water, the _acqua benedetta_. She sprinkled it over the boat and made the sign of the cross. When they reached the island Artois got out. As she came on sh.o.r.e he said to her:
"Hermione, I left the--the two children together in the garden. Do you think--will you go to them for a moment? Or--"
"I will go," she answered.
She was no longer trembling. She followed him up the steps, walking slowly but firmly. They came to the house door. Gaspare had kept close behind them. At the door Artois stopped. He felt as if to-night he ought to go no farther.
Hermione looked at him and pa.s.sed into the house. Gaspare, seeing that Artois did not follow her, hesitated, but Artois said to him:
"Go, Gaspare, go with your Padrona."
Then Gaspare went in, down the pa.s.sage, and out to the terrace.
Hermione was standing there.
"Do you think they are in the garden, Gaspare?" she said.
"Si, Signora. Listen! I can hear them!"
He held up his hand. Not far away there was a sound of voices speaking together.
"Shall I go and tell them, Signora?"
After a moment Hermione said:
"Yes, Gaspare--go and tell them."
He went away, and she waited, leaning on the bal.u.s.trade and looking down to the dim sea, from which only the night before Ruffo"s voice had floated up to her, singing the song of Mergellina. Only the night before! And it seemed to her centuries ago.
"Madre!"
Vere spoke to her. Vere was beside her. But she gazed beyond her child to Ruffo, who stood with his cap in his hand and his eyes, full of gentleness, looking at her for recognition.
"Ruffo!" she said.
Vere moved to let Ruffo pa.s.s. He came up and stood before Hermione.
"Ruffo!" she said again.
It seemed that she was going to say more. They waited for her to say more. But she did not speak. She stood quite still for a moment looking at the boy. Then she put one hand on his shoulder, bent down and touched his forehead with her lips.
And in that kiss the dead man was forgiven.
EPILOGUE
On a radiant day of September in the following year, from the little harbor of Mergellina a white boat with a green line put off. It was rowed by Gaspare, who wore his festa suit, and it contained two people, a man and a women, who had that morning been quietly married.
Another boat preceded theirs, going towards the island, but it was so far ahead of them that they could only see it as a moving dot upon the shining sea, when they rounded the breakwater and set their course for the point of land where lies the Antico Giuseppone.
Gaspare rowed standing up, with his back towards Hermione and Artois and his great eyes staring steadily out to sea. He plied the oars mechanically. During the first few minutes of the voyage to the island his mind was far away. He was a boy in Sicily once more, waiting proudly upon his first, and indeed his only, Padrona in the Casa del Prete on Monte Amato. Then she was quite alone. He could see her sitting at evening upon the terrace with a book in her lap, gazing out across the ravine and the olive-covered mountain slopes to the waters that kissed the sh.o.r.e of the Sirens" Isle. He could see her, when night fell, going slowly up the steps into the lighted cottage, and turning on its threshold to wish him "Buon riposo."
Then there was an interval--and she came again. He was waiting at the station of Cattaro. Outside stood the little train of donkeys, decorated with flowers under his careful supervision. Upon Monte Amato, in the Casa del Prete, everything was in readiness for the arrival of the Padrona--and the Padrone. For this time his Padrona was not to be alone.
And the train came in, thundering along by the sea, and he saw a brown eager face looking out of a window--a face which at once had seemed familiar to him almost as if he had always known it in Sicily.
And the new and wonderful period of his boy"s life began.
But it pa.s.sed, and in the early morning he stood in the corner of the Campo Santo where Protestants were buried, and threw flowers from his father"s terreno into an open grave.
And once more his Padrona was alone.
Far away from Sicily, from his "Paese," among the great woods of the Abetone he received for the first time into his untutored arms his Padroncina. His Padrone was gone from him forever. But once more, as he would have expressed it to a Sicilian comrade, they were "in three." And still another period began.
And now that period was ended.
As Gaspare rowed slowly on towards the island, in his simple and yet shrewd way he was pondering on life, on its irresistible movement, on its changes, its alternations of grief and joy, loneliness and companionship. He was silently reviewing the combined fates of his Padrona and himself.
Behind him for a long while there was silence. But when the boat was abreast of the sloping gardens of Posilipo Artois spoke at last.
"Hermione!" he said.
"Yes," she answered.
"Do you remember that evening when I met you on the sea?"
"After I had been to Frisio"s? Yes I remember it."
"You had been reading what I wrote in the wonderful book."
"And I was wondering why you had written it."
"I had no special reason. I thought of that saying. I had to write something, so I wrote that. I wonder--I wonder now why long ago my conscience did not tell me plainly something. I wonder it did not tell me plainly what you were in my life, all you were."
"Have I--have I really been much?"
"I never knew how much till I thought of you permanently changed towards me, till I thought of you living, but with your affection permanently withdrawn from me. That night--you know--?"
"Yes, I know."
"At first I was not sure--I was afraid for a moment about you. Vere and I were afraid, when your room was dark and we heard nothing. But even then I did not fully understand how much I need you. I only understood that in the Palace of the Spirits, when--when you hated me--"