this time he had turned it off with a laugh, and had said:

"Signora, you are like the Signorina! Once she told me I was--I was"--he
shook his head--"I forget the word. But I am sure it was something that
a man could never be. Per dio!"

And then he had gone off into a rambling conversation that had led
Hermione's attention far away from the starting-point of their talk.

Vere, too, noticed the variations of his demeanor.

"Gaspare was very 'jumpy' to-day in the boat," she said, one evening,
after returning from a sail; "I wonder what's the matter with him. Do
you think he can be in love, Madre?"

"I don't know. But he is _fidanzato_, Vere, with a girl in Marechiaro,
you remember?"

"Yes, but that lasts forever. When I speak of it he always says: 'There
is plenty of time, Signorina. If one marries in a hurry, one makes two
faces ugly!' I should think the girl must be sick of waiting."

Hermione was sure that there was some very definite reason for Gaspare's
curious behavior, but she could not imagine what it was. That it was not
anything to do with his health she had speedily ascertained. Any small
discipline of Providence in the guise of a cold in the head, or a pain
in the stomach, despatched him promptly to the depths. But he had
told her that he was perfectly well and "made of iron," when she had
questioned him on the subject.

She supposed time would elucidate the mystery, and meanwhile she knew
it was no use troubling about it. Years had taught her that when Gaspare
chose to be silent not heaven nor earth could make him speak.

Although Vere could not know why Ruffo attracted her mother, Hermione
knew that Gaspare must understand, at any rate partially, why she cared
so much to be with him. During the days between the last visit of Artois
and the Festa of the Madonna del Carmine her acquaintance with the boy
had progressed so rapidly that sometimes she found herself wondering
what the days had been like before she knew him, the evenings before his
boat slipped into the Saint's Pool, and his light feet ran up from the
water's edge to the cliff top. Possibly, had Ruffo come into her life
when she was comparatively happy and at ease, she would never have
drawn so closely to him, despite the resemblance that stirred her to the
heart. But he came when she was feeling specially lonely and sad; and
when he, too, was in trouble. Both wanted sympathy. Hermione gave Ruffo
hers in full measure. She could not ask fo