"I"m afraid we really can"t stay so late as that."
"But there is a piano. I will play valses. I will sing." He looked ardently at Vere, who was eagerly watching the sea from the window.
"And we will dance, the Signorina and I."
Artois made a brusque movement towards the terrace, muttering something about the launch. A glare of lightning lit up the sh.o.r.e immediately below the terrace, showing him the launch buffeted by the waves that were now breaking over the sandy beach. There came a summoning call from the sailors.
"If you do stay," Artois said to the Marchesino, turning back to them, "you must send the launch round to Mergellina. I don"t believe it can stop here."
"Well, but there are rocks, Caro Emilio. It is protected!"
"Not enough."
"Signora," said Gaspare, "we had better go. It will only get worse. The sea is not too bad yet."
"Come along!" Hermione cried, with decision. "Come, Vere! I"m very sorry, Marchese, but we must really get back at once. Good-night, Emile!
Gaspare give me your arm."
And she set off at once, clinging to Gaspare, who held an open umbrella over her.
"Good-night, Vere!" said Artois.
The girl was looking at him with surprised eyes.
"You are going--"
"I shall take the tram."
"Oh--of course. That is your quickest way."
"Signorina--the umbrella!"
The Marchesino was offering his arm to conduct Vere to the launch. He cast a challenging look of triumph at Artois.
"I would come in the launch," Artois said hastily. "But--Good-night!"
He turned away.
"A rivederci, Emilio!" called the Marchesino.
"--derci!"
The last syllables only came back to them through the wind and the rain.
"Take my arm, Signorina."
"Grazie, it is all right like this."
"Ma--"
"I am quite covered, really, thank you."
She hurried on, smiling, but not taking his arm. She knew how to be obstinate.
"Ma Signorina--mais Mademoiselle--"
"Gaspare! Is Madre all safe in the launch?"
Vere glided from under the Marchesino"s umbrella and sought the shade of Gaspare"s. Behind, the Marchesino was murmuring to himself Neapolitan street expressions.
"Si, Signorina."
Gaspare"s face had suddenly lighted up. His Padroncina"s little hand was holding tightly to his strong arm.
"Take care, Signorina. That is water!"
"Oh, I was nearly in. I thought--"
He almost lifted her into the launch, which was rising and falling on the waves.
"Madre! What a night!"
Vere sank down on the narrow seat of the little cabin. The Marchesino jumped aboard. The machine in the stern throbbed. They rushed forward into the blackness of the impenetrable night, the white of the leaping foam, the hissing of the rain, the roaring of the wind. In a blurred and hasty vision the lights of Frisio"s ran before them, fell back into the storm like things defeated. Hermione fancied she discerned for a second the blind man"s scarlet face and open mouth, the Padrone at a window waving a frantic adieu, having only just become aware of their departure. But if it were so they were gone before she knew--gone into mystery, with Emile and the world.
The Marchesino inserted himself reproachfully into the cabin. He had turned up the collar of his "smoking," and drawn the silk lapels forward over his soft shirt-front. His white gloves were saturated. He came to sit down by Vere.
"Madame!" he said reproachfully, "we should have waited. The sea is too rough. Really, it is dangerous. And the Signorina and I--we could have danced together."
Hermione could not help laughing, though she did not feel gay.
"I should not have danced," said Vere. "I could not. I should have had to watch the storm."
She was peering out of the cabin window at the wild foam that leaped up round the little craft and disappeared in the darkness. There was no sensation of fear in her heart, only a pa.s.sion of interest and an odd feeling of triumph.
To dance with the Marchesino at the Scoglio di Frisio would have been ba.n.a.l in comparison with this glorious progress through the night in the teeth of opposing elements. She envied Gaspare, who was outside with the sailors, and whose form she could dimly see, a blur against the blackness. She longed to take off her smart little hat and her French frock, and be outside too, in the wind and the rain.
"It is ridiculous to be dressed like this!" she said, quickly, taking off the glove she had put on her left hand. "You poor Marchese!"
She looked at his damp "smoking," his soaking gloves and deplorable expression, and could not repress a little rush of laughter.
"Do forgive me! Madre, I know I"m behaving shamefully, but we are all so hopelessly inappropriate. Your diamond broach, Madre! And your hat is all on one side. Gaspare must have knocked it with the umbrella. I am sure we all look like hens in a shower!"
She leaned back against the swaying side of the cabin and laughed till the tears were in her eyes. The sudden coming of the storm had increased the excitement that had been already within her, created by the incidents of the day.
"Vere!" said her mother, but smiling through the protest.
The Marchesino showed his big white teeth. Everything that Vere did seemed to develop his admiration for her. He was delighted with this mood, and forgot his disappointment. But there was a glint of wonder in his eyes, and now he said:
"But the Signorina is not afraid! She does not cry out! She does not call upon the Madonna and the Saints! My mother, my sisters, if they were here--"