glittered and danced in the
sun, whispering or calling with a tender or bold vivacity along its
lovely coast.

Out of this morning beauty, refined and exquisitely gentle, would rise
presently that livelier Pagan spirit. It was not hers. She was no Pagan.
But she had loved it, and she had, or thought she had, been able to
understand it.

All that was long ago.

Now, as she leaned out, her soul felt old and haggard, and the contact
with the youth and freshness of the morning emphasized its inability
to be influenced any more by youthful wonders, by the graciousness and
inspiration that are the gifts of dawn.

Was that Ruffo's boat?

Her mind was dwelling on Ruffo, but mechanically, heavily, like a thing
with feet of lead, unable to lift itself once it had dropped down upon a
surface.

All the night her brain had been busy. Now it did not slumber, but it
brooded, like the mist that had so lately left the sea. It brooded upon
the thought of Ruffo.

The light grew. Over the mountains the sky spread scarlet banners.
The sea took, with a quiet readiness that was happily submissive, its
burnished gift of gold. The gray was lost in gold.

And Hermione watched, and drank in the delicate air, but caught nothing
of the delicate spirit of the dawn.

Presently the boat that lay not far beyond the rocks moved. A little
black figure stood up in it, swayed to and fro, plying tiny oars. The
boat diminished. It was leaving the fishing-ground. It was going towards
Mergellina.

"To-day I am going to Mergellina."

Hermione said that to herself as she watched the boat till it
disappeared in the shining gold that was making a rapture of the sea.
She said it, but the words seemed to have little meaning, the fact which
they conveyed to be unimportant to her.

And she leaned out of the window, with a weary and inexpressive face,
while the gold spread ever more widely over the sea, and the Pagan
spirit surely stirred from its brief repose to greet the brilliant day.

Presently she became aware of a boat approaching the island from the
direction of Mergellina. She saw it first when it was a long distance
off, and watched it idly as it drew near. It looked black against the
gold, till it was off the Villa Pantano. But then, or soon after, she
saw that it was white. It was making straight for the island, propelled
by vigorous arms.

Now she thought it looked like one of the island boats. Could Vere have
got up and gone out so ear