d to be truthful, and Hermione knew of
the outburst in the night, and that "the foreign Signore" had known of
it from the moment of its happening.

"The Signorina was so kind, Signora, that I forgot. I told her all!--I
told her all--I told her--"

Once Peppina had begun to be truthful she could not stop. She
recalled--or seemed to--the very words she had spoken to Vere, all the
details of her narration.

"And the foreign Signore? Was he there, too?" Hermione asked, at the
end.

"No, Signora. He went away. The Signorina told him to go away and leave
us."

Hermione dismissed Peppina quietly.

"Please don't say anything about this conversation, Peppina," she said,
as the agitated girl prepared to go. "Try to obey me this time, will
you?"

She spoke very kindly but very firmly.

"May the Madonna take out my tongue if I speak, Signora!" Peppina raised
her hand.

As she was going out Hermione stared at the cross upon her cheek.

CHAPTER XXVI

Artois stayed to dine. The falling of night deepened Hermione's
impression of the gulf which was now between them, and which she was
sure he knew of. When darkness comes to intimacy it seems to make that
intimacy more perfect. Now surely it caused reserve, restraint, to be
more complete. The two secrets which Hermione now knew, but which were
still cherished as secrets by Vere and Artois, stood up between the
mother and her child and friend, inexorably dividing them.

Hermione was strung up to a sort of nervous strength that was full of
determination. She had herself in hand, like a woman of the world who
faces society with the resolution to deceive it. While Vere and Artois
had been out in the boat she had schooled herself. She felt more
competent to be the watcher of events. She even felt calmer, for
knowledge increased almost always brings an undercurrent of increased
tranquility, because of the sense of greater power that it produces in
the mind. She looked better. She talked more easily.

When dinner was over they went as usual to the garden, and when
they were there Hermione referred to the projected meeting with the
Marchesino.

"I made a promise," she said. "I must keep it."

"Of course," said Artois. "But it seems to me that I am always being
entertained, and that I am inhospitable--I do nothing in return. I have
a proposal to make. Monday will be the sixteenth of July, the festa
of the Madonna del Carmine--Santa Maria del Carmine. It is one of the
pret