"Ought they, Signora?"
"You like your life, don"t you? You like the sea?"
"Si, Signora. I could not live away from the sea. If I could not see the sea every day I don"t know what I should do."
"I love it, too."
"The Signorina loves the sea."
He had ignored her love for it and seized on Vere"s. She thought that this was very characteristic of his youth.
"Yes. She loves being here. You talked to her to-night, didn"t you?"
"Si, Signora."
"And to Gaspare?"
"Si, Signora. And this afternoon, too. Gaspare was at Mergellina this afternoon."
"And you met there, did you?"
"Si, Signora. I had been with my mamma, and when I left my mamma--poveretta--I met Gaspare."
"I hope your mother is well."
"Signora, she is not very well just now. She is a little sad just now."
Hermione felt that the boy had some trouble which, perhaps, he would like to tell her. Perhaps some instinct made him know that she felt tender towards him, very tender that night.
"I am sorry for that," she said--"very sorry."
"Si, Signora. There is trouble in our house."
"What is it, Ruffo?"
The boy hesitated to answer. He moved his bare feet on the bridge and looked down towards the boat. Hermione did not press him, said nothing.
"Signora," Ruffo said, at last, coming to a decision, "my Patrigno is not a good man. He makes my mamma jealous. He goes after others."
It was the old story of the South, then! Hermione knew something of the persistent infidelities of Neapolitan men. Poor women who had to suffer them!
"I am sorry for your mother," she said, gently. "That must be very hard."
"Si, Signora, it is hard. My mamma was very unhappy to-day. She put her head on the table, and she cried. But that was because my Patrigno is put in prison."
"In prison! What has he done?"
Ruffo looked at her, and she saw that the simple expression had gone out of his eyes.
"Signora, I thought perhaps you knew."
"I? But I have never seen your step-father."
"No, Signora. But--but you have that girl here in your house."
"What girl?"
Suddenly, almost while she was speaking, Hermione understood.
"Peppina!" she said. "It was your Patrigno who wounded Peppina?"
"Si, Signora."
There was a silence between them. Then Hermione said, gently:
"I am very sorry for your poor mother, Ruffo--very sorry. Tell me, can she manage? About money, I mean?"
"It is not so much the money she was crying about, Signora. But, of course, while Patrigno is in prison he cannot earn money for her. I shall give her my money. But my mamma does not like all the neighbors knowing about that girl. It is a shame for her."
"Yes, of course it is. It is very hard."
She thought a moment. Then she said:
"It must be horrible--horrible!"
She spoke with all the vehemence of her nature. Again, as long ago, when she knelt before a mountain shrine in the night, she had put herself imaginatively in the place of a woman, this time in the place of Ruffo"s mother. She realized how she would have felt if her husband, her "man,"
had ever been faithless to her.
Ruffo looked at her almost in surprise.
"I wish I could see your poor mother, Ruffo," she said. "I would go to see her, only--well, you see, I have Peppina here, and--"
She broke off. Perhaps the boy would not understand what she considered the awkwardness of the situation. She did not quite know how these people regarded certain things.
"Wait here a moment, Ruffo," she said. "I am going to give you something for your mother. I won"t be a moment."
"Grazie, Signora."
Hermione went away to the house. The perfect naturalness and simplicity of the boy appealed to her. She was pleased, too, that he had not told all this to Vere. It showed a true feeling of delicacy. And she was sure he was a good son. She went up to her room, got two ten lira notes, and went quickly back to Ruffo, who was standing upon the bridge.
"There, Ruffo," she said, giving them to him. "These are for your mother."
The boy"s brown face flushed, and into his eyes there came an expression of almost melting gentleness.
"Oh, Signora!" he said.
And there was a note of protest in his voice.
"Take them to her, Ruffo. And--and I want you to promise me something.