Hermione did not sleep at all that night. When the dawn came she got up
and looked out over the sea. The mist had vanished with the darkness.
The vaporous heat was replaced by a delicate freshness that embraced the
South as dew embraces a rose. On the as yet pale waters, full of varying
shades of gray, slate color, ethereal mauve, very faint pink and white,
were dotted many fishing-boats. Hermione looked at them with her tired
eyes. Ruffo’s boat was no doubt among them. There was one only a few
hundred yards beyond the rocks from which Vere sometimes bathed. Perhaps
that was his.
Ruffo’s boat! Ruffo!
She put her elbows on the sill of the window and rested her face in her
hands.
Her eyes felt very dry, like sand she thought, and her mind felt dry
too, as if insomnia was withering it up. She opened her lips to breathe
in the salt freshness of the morning.
Upon Anacapri a woolly white cloud lay lightly. The distant coast, where
dreams Sorrento, was becoming clearer every moment.
Often and often in the summer-time had Hermione been invaded by the
radiant cheerfulness of the Bay of Naples. She knew no sea that had its
special gift of magical gayety and stirring hopefulness, its laughing
Pagan appeal to all the light things of the soul. It woke even the weary
heart to holiday when, in the summer, it 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 early with Gaspare?
She drew back, lifted her face from her hands, and stood straight up
against the curtain of the window. In a moment she heard the sound of
oars in the water, and saw that the boat was from the island, and that
Gaspare was in it alone. He looked up, saw her, and raised his cap, but
with a rather reluctant gesture that scarcely indicated satisfaction or
a happy readiness to greet her. She hesitated, then called out to him.
“Good-morning, Gaspare.”
“Good-morning, Signora.”
“How early you are up!”
“And you, too, Signora.”
“Couldn’t you sleep?”
“Signora, I never want much sleep.”
“Where have you been?”
“I have been for a row, Signora.”
He lifted his cap again and began to row in. The boat disappeared into
the Saint’s Pool.
“He has been to Mergellina.”
The mind of Hermione was awake again. The sight of Gaspare had lifted
those feet of lead. Once more she was in flight.
Arabs can often read the thoughts of those whom they know. In many
Sicilians there is some Arab blood, and sometimes Hermione had felt that
Gaspare knew well intentions of hers which she had never hinted to him.
Now she was sure that in the night he had divined her determination to
go to Mergellina, to see the mother of Ruffo, to ask her for the truth
which Gaspare had refused to tell. He had divined this, and he had gone
to Mergellina before her. Why?
She was fully roused now. She felt like one in a conflict. Was there,
then, to be a battle between herself and Gaspare, a battle over this
hidden truth?
Now she felt that it was vital to her to know this truth. Yet when her
mind, or her tormented heart, was surely on the verge of its statement,
was--or seemed to be--about to say to her, “Perhaps it is--that!” or
“It is--that!” something within her, housed deep down in her, refused to
listen, refused to hear, revolted from--what it did not acknowledge the
existence of.
Paradox alone could hint the condition of her mind just then. She was in
the thrall of fear, but, had she been questioned, would not have allowed
that she was afraid.
Afterwards she never rightly knew what was the truth of her during this
period of her life.
There was to be a conflict between her and Gaspare.
She came from the window, took a bath, and dressed. When she had
finished she looked in the glass. Her face was calm, but set and grim.
She had not known she could look like that. She hated her face, her
expression, and she came away from the glass feeling almost afraid of
herself.
At breakfast she and Vere always met. The table was laid out-of-doors
in the little garden or on the terrace if the weather was fine, in the
dining-room if it was bad. This morning Hermione saw the glimmer of
the white cloth near the fig-tree. She wondered if Vere was there,
and longed to plead a headache and to have her coffee in her bedroom.
Nevertheless, she went down resolved to govern herself.
In the garden she found Giulia smiling and putting down the silver
coffee-pot in quite a bower of roses. Vere was not visible.
Hermione exchanged a good-morning with Giulia and sat down. The
servant’s smiling face brought her a mingled feeling of relief and
wonder. The pungent smell of coffee, conquering the soft scent of the
many roses, pinned her mind abruptly down to the simple realities and
animal pleasures and necessities of life. She made a strong effort to
be quite normal, to think of the moment, to live for it. The morning was
fresh and lively; the warmth of the sun, the tonic vivacity of the air
from the sea, caressed and quickened her blood.
The minute garden was secluded. A world that seemed at peace, a world
of rocks and waters far from the roar of traffic, the uneasy hum of men,
lay around her.
Surely the moment was sweet, was peaceful. She would live in it.
Vere came slowly from the house, and at once Hermione’s newly made and
not yet carried out resolution crumbled into dust. She forgot the
sun, the sea, the peaceful situation and all material things. She
was confronted by the painful drama of the island life! Vere with her
secrets, Emile with his, Gaspare fighting to keep her, his Padrona,
still in mystery. And she was confronted by her own passions, those
hosts of armed men that have their dwelling in every powerful nature.
Vere came up listlessly.
“Good-morning, Madre,” she said.
She kissed her mother’s cheek with cold lips.
“What lovely roses!”
She smelled them and sat down in her place facing the sea-wall.
“Yes, aren’t they?”
“And such a heavenly morning after the mist! What are we going to do
to-day?”
Hermione gave her her coffee, and the little dry tap of a spoon on an
egg-shell was heard in the stillness of the garden.
“Well, I--I am going across to take the tram.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Naples again? I’m tired of Naples.”
There was in her voice a sound that suggested rather hatred than
lassitude.
“I don’t know that I shall go as far as Naples. I am going to
Mergellina.”
“Oh!”
Vere did not ask her what she was going to do there. She showed no
special interest, no curiosity.
“What will you do, Vere?”
“I don’t know.”
She glanced round. Hermione saw that her usually bright eyes were dull
and lack-lustre.
“I don’t know what I shall do.”
She sighed and began to eat her egg slowly, as if she had no appetite.
“Did you sleep well, Vere?”
“Not very well, Madre.”
“Are you tired of the island?”
Vere looked up as if startled.
“Oh no! at least”--she paused--“No, I don’t believe I could ever be
really that. I love the island.”
“What is it, then?”
“Sometimes--some days one doesn’t know exactly what to do.”
“Well, but you always seem occupied.” Hermione spoke with slow meaning,
not unkindly, but with a significance she hardly meant to put into
her voice, yet could not keep out of it. “You always manage to find
something to do.”
Suddenly Vere’s eyes filled with tears. She bent down her head and went
on eating. Again she heard Monsieur Emile’s harsh words. They seemed to
have changed her world. She felt despised. At that moment she hated the
Marchesino with a fiery hatred.
Hermione was not able to put her arm round her child quickly, to ask
her what was the matter, to kiss her tears away, or to bid them flow
quietly, openly, while Vere rested against her, secure that the sorrow
was understood, was shared. She could only pretend not to see, while she
thought of the two shadows in the garden last night.
What could have happened between Emile and Vere? What had been said,
done, to cause that cry of pain, those tears? Was it possible that Emile
had let Vere see plainly his--his--? But here Hermione stopped. Not
even in her own mind, for herself alone, could she summon up certain
spectres.
She went on eating her breakfast, and pretending not to notice that Vere
was troubled. Presently Vere spoke again.
“Would you like me to come with you to Mergellina, Madre?” she said.
Her voice was rather uneven, almost trembling.
“Oh no, Vere!”
Hermione spoke hastily, abruptly, strongly conscious of the
impossibility of taking Vere with her. Directly she had said the
words she realized that they must have fallen on Vere like a blow. She
realized this still more when she looked quickly up and saw that Vere’s
face was scarlet.
“I don’t mean that I shouldn’t like to have you with me, Vere,” she
added, hurriedly. “But--”
“It’s all right, Madre. Well, I’ve finished. I think I shall go out a
little in my boat.”
She went away, half humming, half singing the tune of the Mergellina
song.
Hermione put down her cup. She had not finished her coffee, but she knew
she could not finish it. Life seemed at that moment utterly intolerable
to her. She felt desperate, as a nature does that is forced back upon
itself by circumstances, that is forced to be, or to appear to be,
traitor to itself. And in her desperation action presented itself to her
as imperatively necessary--necessary as air is to one suffocating.
She got up. She would start at once for Mergellina. As she went
up-stairs she remembered that she did not know where Ruffo’s mother
lived, what she was like, even what her name was. The boy had always
spoken of her as “Mia Mamma.” They dwelt at Mergellina. That was all she
knew.
She did not choose to ask Gaspare anything. She would go alone, and find
out somehow for herself where Ruffo lived. She would ask the fishermen.
Or perhaps she would come across Ruffo. Probably he had gone home by
this time from the fishing.
Quickly, energetically she got ready.
Just before she left her room she saw Vere pass slowly by upon the
sea, rowing a little way out alone, as she often did in the calm summer
weather. Vere had a book, and almost directly she laid the oars in their
places side by side, went into the stern, sat down under the awning,
and began--apparently--to read. Hermione watched her for two or three
minutes. She looked very lonely; and moved by an impulse to try to
erase the impression made on her by the abrupt exclamation at the
breakfast-table, the mother leaned out and hailed the child.
“Good-bye, Vere! I am just starting!” she cried out, trying to make her
voice sound cheerful and ordinary.
Vere looked up for a second.
“Good-bye!”
She bent her head and returned to her book.
Hermione felt chilled.
She went down and met Giulia in the passage.
“Giulia, is Gaspare anywhere about? I want to cross to the mainland. I
am going to take the tram.”
“Signora, are you going to Naples? Maria says--”
“I can’t do any commissions, because I shall probably not go beyond
Mergellina. Find Gaspare, will you?”
Giulia went away and Hermione descended to the Saint’s Pool. She waited
there two or three minutes. Then Gaspare appeared above.
“You want the boat, Signora?”
“Yes, Gaspare.”
He leaped down the steps and stood beside her.
“Where do you want to go?”
She hesitated. Then she looked him straight in the face and said:
“To Mergellina.”
He met her eyes without flinching. His face was quite calm.
“Shall I row you there, Signora?”
“I meant to go to the village, and walk up and take the tram.”
“As you like, Signora. But I can easily row you there.”
“Aren’t you tired after being out so early this morning?”
“No, Signora.”
“Did you go far?”
“Not so very far, Signora.”
Hermione hesitated. She knew Gaspare had been to Mergellina. She knew
he had been to see Ruffo’s mother. If that were so her journey would
probably be in vain. In their conflict Gaspare had struck the first
blow. Could anything be gained by her going?
Gaspare saw, and perhaps read accurately, her hesitation.
“It will get very hot to-day, Signora,” he said, carelessly.
His words decided Hermione. If obstacles were to be put in her way she
would overleap them. At all costs she would emerge from the darkness in
which she was walking. A heat of anger rushed over her. She felt as if
Gaspare, and perhaps Artois, were treating her like a child.
“I must go to Mergellina, Gaspare,” she said. “And I shall go by tram.
Please row me to the village.”
“Va bene, Signora,” he answered.
He went to pull in the boat.