Artois had intended to go that evening to the island. But he did not
fulfil his intention. When the sun began to sink he threw a light coat
over his arm and walked down to the harbor of Santa Lucia. A boatman
whom he knew met him and said:
“Shall I take you to the island, Signore?”
Artois was there to take a boat. He meant to say yes. Yet when the man
spoke he answered no. The fellow turned away and found another customer.
Two or three minutes later Artois saw his boat drawing out to sea in the
direction of Posilipo. It was a still evening, and very clear after the
storm of the preceding night. Artois longed to be in that travelling
boat, longed to see the night come from the summit of the island with
Hermione and Vere. But he resisted the sea, its wide peace, its subtle
summons, called a carriage and drove to the Galleria. Arrived there,
he took his seat at a little table outside the “Gran Caffe,” ordered a
small dinner, and, while he was eating it, watched the people strolling
up and down, seeking among them for a figure that he knew.
As the hour drew near for the music to begin, and the girls dressed in
white came out one by one to the platform that, surrounded by a white
railing edged with red velvet, is built out beyond the caffe to face the
crowd, the number of promenaders increased, and many stood still waiting
for the first note, and debating the looks of the players. Others
thronged around Artois, taking possession of the many little tables, and
calling for ices, lemon-water, syrups, and liqueurs. Priests, soldiers,
sailors, students, actors--who assemble in the Galleria to seek
engagements--newsboys, and youths whose faces suggested that they were
“ruffiani,” mingled with foreigners who had come from the hotels and
from the ships in the harbor, and whose demeanor was partly curious
and partly suspicious, as of one who longs to probe the psychology of a
thief while safely guarding his pockets. The buzz of voices, the tramp
of feet, gained a peculiar and vivid sonorousness from the high and
vaulted roof; and in the warm air, under the large and winking electric
lights, the perpetually moving figures looked strangely capricious,
hungry, determined, furtive, ardent, and intent. On their little stands
the electric fans whirred as they slowly revolved, casting an artificial
breeze upon pallid faces, and around the central dome the angels with
gilded wings lifted their right arms as if pointing the unconscious
multitude the difficult way to heaven.
A priest sat down with two companions at the table next to Artois.
He had a red cord round his shaggy black hat. His face was like a
parroquet’s, with small, beady eyes full of an unintellectual sharpness.
His plump body suggested this world, and his whole demeanor, the
movements of his dimpled, dirty hands, and of his protruding lips, the
attitude of his extended legs, the pose of his coarse shoulders, seemed
hostile to things mystical. He munched an ice, and swallowed hasty
draughts of iced water, talking the while with a sort of gluttonous
vivacity. Artois looked at him and heard, with his imagination, the
sound of the bell at the Elevation, and saw the bowed heads of the
crouching worshippers. The irony of life, that is the deepest mystery of
life, came upon him like the wave of some Polar sea. He looked up at the
gilded angels, then dropped his eyes and saw what he had come to see.
Slowly threading her way through the increasing throng, came the old
woman whom he had watched so often and by whom he had been watched.
To-night she had on her summer dress, a respectable, rather shiny gown
of grayish mauve, a bonnet edged with white ribbon, a pair of white
thread gloves. She carried her little bag and a small Japanese fan.
Walking in a strange, flat-footed way that was peculiar to her, and
glancing narrowly about her, yet keeping her hand almost still, she
advanced towards the band-stand. As she came opposite to Artois the
orchestra of women struck up the “Valse Noir,” and the old woman stood
still, impeded by the now dense crowd of listeners. While the demurely
sinister music ran its course, she remained absolutely immobile. Artois
watched her with a keen interest.
It had come into his mind that she was the aunt of Peppina, the
disfigured girl, who perhaps to-night was sleeping in the Casa del Mare
with Vere.
Presently, attracted, no doubt, by his gaze, the old woman looked across
at Artois and met his eyes. Instantly a sour and malignant expression
came into her long, pale face, and she drew up a corner of her upper
lip, as a dog sometimes does, showing a tooth that was like a menace.
She was secretly cursing Artois.
He knew why. Encouraged by his former observation of her, she had
scented a client in him and had been deceived, and this deception had
bred within her an acrid hatred of him. To-night he would chase away
that hatred. For he meant to speak to her. The old woman looked away
from him, holding her head down as if in cold disdain. Artois read
easily what was passing in her mind. She believed him wicked, but
nervous in his wickedness, desirous of her services but afraid to invite
them. And she held him in the uttermost contempt. Well, to-night he
would undeceive her on one point at least. He kept his eyes upon her
so firmly that she looked at him again. This time he made a sign of
recognition, of understanding. She stared as if in suspicious amazement.
He glanced towards the dome, then at her once more. At this moment the
waiter came up. Artois paid his bill slowly and ostentatiously. As he
counted out the money upon the little tray he looked up once, and saw
the eyes in the long, pale face of the venerable temptress glitter while
they watched. The music ceased, the crowd before the platform broke
up, and began quickly to melt away. Only the woman waited, holding her
little bag and her cheap Japanese fan.
Artois drew out a cigar, lit it slowly, then got up, and began to move
out among the tables.
The priest looked after him, spoke rapidly to his companions, and burst
into a throaty laugh which was loudly echoed.
“Maria Fortunata is in luck to-night!” said some one.
Then the band began again, the waiter came with more ices, and the tall,
long-bearded forestiere was forgotten.
Without glancing at the woman, Artois strolled slowly on. Many people
looked at him, but none spoke to him, for he was known now, as each
stranger who stays long in Naples is known, summed up, labelled, and
either ignored or pestered. The touts and the ruffiani were aware
that it was no use to pester the Frenchman, and even the decrepit
and indescribably seedy old men who hover before the huge plate-glass
windows of the photograph shops, or linger near the entrance to the
cinematograph, never peeped at him out of the corners of their bloodshot
eyes or whispered a word of the white slaves in his ear.
When he was beneath the dome, and could see the light gleaming upon the
wings of the pointing angels, Artois seemed to be aware of an individual
step among the many feet behind him, a step soft, furtive, and
obstinate, that followed him like a fate’s. He glanced up at the angels.
A melancholy and half-bitter smile came to his lips. Then he turned to
the right and made his way still slowly towards the Via Roma, always
crowded from the early afternoon until late into the night. As he went,
as he pushed through the mob of standing men at the entrance of the
Galleria, and crossed the street to the far side, from which innumerable
narrow and evil-looking alleys stretch away into the darkness up the
hill, the influence of the following old woman increased upon him,
casting upon him like a mist her hateful eagerness. He desired to be rid
of it, and, quickening his walk, he turned into the first alley he came
to, walked a little way up it, until he was in comparative solitude and
obscurity, then stopped and abruptly turned.
The shiny, grayish mauve gown and the white-trimmed bonnet were close to
him. Between them he faintly perceived a widely smiling face, and from
this face broke at once a sickly torrent of speech, half Neapolitan
dialect, half bastard French.
“Silenzio!” Artois said, sternly.
The old harridan stopped in surprise, showing her tooth.
“What has become of Peppina?”
“Maria Santissima!” she ejaculated, moving back a step in the darkness.
She paused. Then she said:
“You know Peppina!”
She came forward again, quite up to him, and peered into his face,
seeking there for an ugly truth which till now had been hidden from her.
“What had you to do with Peppina?”
“Nothing. Tell me about her, and--”
He put his hand to the inside pocket of his coat, and showed her the
edge of a little case containing paper notes. The woman misunderstood
him. He knew that by her face, which for the moment was as a
battle-field on which lust fought with a desperate anger of
disappointment. Then cunning came to stop the battle.
“You have heard of Peppina, Signore? You have never seen her?”
Artois played with her for a moment.
“Never.”
Her smile widened. She put up her thin hands to her hair, her bonnet,
coquettishly.
“There is not a girl in Naples as beautiful as Peppina. Mother of--”
But the game was too loathsome with such a player.
“Beautiful! Macche!”
He laughed, made a gesture of pulling out a knife and smashing his face
with it.
“Beautiful! Per Dio!”
The coquetry, the cunning, dropped out of the long, pale face.
“The Signore knows?”
“Ma si! All Naples knows.”
The old woman’s face became terrible. Her two hands shot up, dropped,
shot up again, imprecating, cursing the world, the sky, the whole scheme
of the universe, it seemed. She chattered like an ape. Artois soothed
her with a ten-lire note.
That night, when he went back to the hotel, he had heard the
aunt’s version of Peppina, and knew--that which really he had known
before--that Hermione had taken her to live on the island.
Hermione! What was she? An original, clever and blind, great-hearted and
unwise. An enthusiast, one created to be carried away.
Never would she grow really old, never surely would the primal fires
within her die down into the gray ashes that litter so many of the
hearths by which age sits, a bleak, uncomely shadow.
And Peppina was on the island, a girl from the stews of Naples; not
wicked, perhaps, rather wronged, injured by life--nevertheless, the
niece of that horror of the Galleria.
He thought of Vere and shuddered.
Next day towards four o’clock the Marchesino strolled into Artois’ room,
with a peculiarly impudent look of knowledge upon his face.
“Buon giorno, Caro Emilio,” he said. “Are you busy?”
“Not specially.”
“Will you come with me for a stroll in the Villa? Will you come to see
the gathering together of the geese?”
“Che Diavolo! What’s that?”
“This summer the Marchesa Pontini has organized a sort of club, which
meets in the Villa every day except Sundays. Three days the meeting is
in the morning, three days in the afternoon. The silliest people of the
aristocracy belong to this club, and the Marchesa is the mother goose.
Ecco! Will you come, or--or have you some appointment?” He smiled in his
friend’s face.
Artois wondered, but could not divine, what was at the back of his mind.
“No, I had thought of going on the sea.”
“Or to the Toledo, perhaps?”
The Marchesino laughed happily.
“The Toledo? Why should I go there?”
“Non lo so. Put on your chapeau and come. Il fait tres beau cet
apres-midi.”
Doro was very proud of his French, which made Artois secretly shiver,
and generally spoke it when he was in specially good spirits, or was
feeling unusually mischievous. As they walked along the sea-front a
moment later, he continued in Italian:
“You were not at the island yesterday, Emilio?”
“No. Were you?”
“I naturally called to know how the ladies were after that terrible
storm. What else could I do?”
“And how were they?”
“The Signora was in Naples, and of course the Signorina could not have
received me alone. But the saints were with me, Emilio. I met her on
the sea; quite by herself, on the sea of the Saint’s pool. She was lying
back in a little boat, with no hat on, her hands behind her head--so,
and her eyes--her beautiful eyes, Emilio, were full of dreams, of dreams
of the sea.”
“How do you know that?” said Artois, rather sharply.
“Cosa?”
“How do you know the Signorina was dreaming of the sea? Did she--did she
tell you?”
“No, but I am sure. We walked together from the boats. I told her she
was an enchantress of the sea, the spirit of the wave--I told her!”
He spread out his hands, rejoicing in the remembrance of his graceful
compliments.
“The Signorina was delighted, but she could not stay long. She had a
slight headache and was a little tired after the storm. But she would
have liked to ask me to the house. She was longing to. I could see
that.”
He seized his mustache.
“She turned her head away, trying to conceal from me her desire, but--”
He laughed.
“Le donne! Le donne!” he happily exclaimed.
Artois found himself wondering why, until Doro had made the acquaintance
of the dwellers on the island, he had never wished to smack his smooth,
complacent cheeks.
They turned from the sea into the broad walk of the Villa, and walked
towards the kiosk. Near it, on the small, green chairs, were some ladies
swathed in gigantic floating-veils, talking to two or three very smart
young men in white suits and straw hats, who leaned forward eying them
steadily with a determined yet rather vacuous boldness that did not
disconcert them. One of the ladies, dressed in black-and-white check,
was immensely stout. She seemed to lead the conversation, which was
carried on with extreme vivacity in very loud and not melodious voices.
“Ecco the gathering of the geese!” said the Marchesino, touching Artois
on the arm. “And that”--he pointed to the stout lady, who at this moment
tossed her head till her veil swung loose like a sail suddenly
deserted by the wind--“is the goose-mother. Buona sera, Marchesa! Buona
sera--molto piacere. Carlo, buona sera--a rivederci, Contessa! A questa
sera.”
He showed his splendid teeth in a fixed but winning smile, and, hat in
hand, went by, walking from his hips. Then, replacing his hat on his
head, he added to his friend:
“The Marchesa is always hoping that the Duchessa d’Aosta will come
one day, if only for a moment, to smile upon the geese. But--well, the
Duchessa prefers to climb to the fourth story to see the poor. She has a
heart. Let us sit here, Emilio.”
They sat down under the trees, and the Marchesino looked at his pointed
boots for a moment in silence, pushing forward his under lip until his
blond mustache touched the jaunty tip of his nose. Then he began to
laugh, still looking before him.
“Emilio! Emilio!”
He shook his head repeatedly.
“Emilio mio! And that you should be asking me to show you Naples! It is
too good! C’est parfait!”
The Marchesino turned towards Artois.
“And Maria Fortunata! Santa Maria of the Toledo, the white-haired
protectress of the strangers! Emilio--you might have come to me! But you
do not trust me. Ecco! You do not--”
Artois understood.
“You saw me last night?”
“Ma si! All Naples saw you. Do you not know that the Galleria is
full--but full--of eyes?”
“Va bene! But you don’t understand.”
“Emilio!”
He shrugged his shoulders, lifted his hands, his eyebrows. His whole
being seemed as if it were about to mount ironically towards heaven.
“You don’t understand. I repeat it.”
Artois spoke quietly, but there was a sound in his voice which caused
his frivolous companion to stare at him with an inquiry that was, for a
moment, almost sulky.
“You forget, Doro, how old I am.”
“What has that to do with it?”
“You forget--”
Artois was about to allude to his real self, to point out the
improbability of a man so mental, so known, so travelled as he was,
falling like a school-boy publicly into a sordid adventure. But he
stopped, realizing the uselessness of such an explanation. And he could
not tell the Marchesino the truth of his shadowy colloquy in a by-street
with the old creature from behind the shutter.
“You have made a mistake about me,” he said. “But it is of no
consequence. Look! There is another goose coming.”
He pointed with his cane in the direction of the chatterers near the
kiosk.
“It is papa! It is papa!”
“Pardon! I did not recognize--”
The Marchesino got up.
“Let us go there. The Marchesa with papa--it is better than the
Compagnia Scarpetta! I will present you.”
But Artois was in no mood for a cataract of nothingness.
“Not now,” he said. “I have--”
The Marchesino shot a cruel glance of impudent comprehension at him, and
touched his left hand in token of farewell.
“I know! I know! The quickest horse to the Toledo. A-ah! A-ah! May the
writer’s saint go with you! Addio, mio caro!”
There was a hint of real malice in his voice. He cocked his hat and
strutted away towards the veils and the piercing voices. Artois stared
after him for a moment, then walked across the garden to the sea, and
leaned against the low wall looking towards Capri. He was vexed at this
little episode--unreasonably vexed. In his friend Doro he now discerned
a possible enemy. An Italian who has trusted does not easily forgive if
he is not trusted in return. Artois was conscious of a dawning hostility
in the Marchesino. No doubt he could check it. Doro was essentially
good-tempered and light-hearted. He could check it by an exhibition
of frankness. But this frankness was impossible to him, and as it was
impossible he must allow Doro to suspect him of sordid infamies. He
knew, of course, the Neapolitan’s habitual disbelief in masculine
virtue, and did not mind it. Then why should he mind Doro’s laughing
thought of himself as one of the elderly crew who cling to forbidden
pleasures? Why should he feel sore, angry, almost insulted?
Vere rose before him, as one who came softly to bring him the answer to
his questionings. And he knew that his vexation arose from the secret
apprehension of a future in which he would desire to stand between her
and the Marchesino with clean hands, and tell Doro certain truths which
are universal, not national. Such truths would come ill from one whom
the lectured held unclean.
As he walked home to the hotel his vexation grew.
When he was once more in his room he remembered his remark to Hermione,
“We shall have many quiet, happy evenings together this summer, I hope,”
and her strange and doubtful reply. And because he felt himself invaded
by her doubts he resolved to set out for the island. If he took a boat
at once he could be there between six and seven o’clock.
And perhaps he would see the new occupant of the Casa del Mare. Perhaps
he would see Peppina.