When Hermione woke it was four o’clock.  She sat up on the rug, looked down over the mountain flank to the sea, then turned and saw her husband.  He was lying with his face half buried in his folded arms.

“Maurice!” she said, softly.

“Yes,” he answered, lifting his face.

“Then you weren’t asleep!”

“No.”

“Have you been asleep?”

“No.”

She looked at her watch.

“All this time!  It’s four.  What a disgraceful siesta!  But I was really tired after the long journey and the night.”

She stood up.  He followed her example and threw the rug over his arm.

“Emile will think we’ve deserted him and aren’t going to give him any tea.”

“Yes.”

They began to walk up the track towards the terrace.

“Maurice,” Hermione said, presently, more thoroughly wide-awake now.  “Did you get up while I was asleep?  Did you begin to move away from me, and did I stop you, or was it a dream?  I have a kind of vague recollection or is it only imagination? of stretching out my hand and saying, ‘Don’t leave me alone don’t leave me alone!’”

“I moved a little,” he answered, after a slight pause.

“And you did stretch out your hand and murmur something.”

“It was that ’don’t leave me alone.’”

“Perhaps.  I couldn’t hear.  It was such a murmur.”

“And you only moved a little?  How stupid of me to think you were getting up to go away!”

“When one is half asleep one has odd ideas often.”

He did not tell her that he had been getting up softly, hoping to steal away to the mountain-top and destroy the fragments of her letter, hidden there, while she slept.

“You won’t mind,” he added, “if I go down to bathe this evening.  I sha’n’t sleep properly to-night unless I do.”

“Of course go.  But won’t it be rather late after tea?”

“Oh no.  I’ve often been in at sunset.”

“How delicious the water must look then!  Maurice!”

“Yes?”

“Shall I come with you?  Shall I bathe, too?  It would be lovely, refreshing, after this heat!  It would wash away all the dust of the train!”

Her face was glowing with the anticipation of pleasure.  Every little thing done with him was an enchantment after the weeks of separation.

“Oh, I don’t think you’d better, Hermione,” he answered, hastily.  “I you there might be people.  I I must rig you up something first, a tent of some kind.  Gaspare and I will do it.  I can’t have my wife ”

“All right,” she said.

She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

“How lucky you men are!  You can do anything.  And there’s no fuss.  Ah, there’s poor Emile, patiently waiting!”

Artois was already established once more in the chaise longue.  He greeted them with a smile that was gentle, almost tender.  Those evil feelings to which he had been a prey in London had died away.  He loved now to see the happiness in Hermione’s face.  His illness had swept out his selfishness, and in it he had proved her affection.  He did not think that he could ever be jealous of her again.

“Sleeping all this time?” he said.

“I was.  I’m ashamed of myself.  My hair is full of mountain-side, but you must forgive me, Emile.  Ah, there’s Lucrezia!  Is tea ready, Lucrezia?”

“Si, signora.”

“Then ask Gaspare to bring it.”

“Gaspare he isn’t here, signora.  But I’ll bring it.”

She went away.

“Where’s Gaspare, I wonder?” said Hermione.  “Have you seen him, Emile?”

“No.”

“Perhaps he’s sleeping, too.  He sleeps generally among the hens.”

She looked round the corner into the out-house.

“No, he isn’t there.  Have you sent him anywhere, Maurice?”

“I?  No.  Where should I ”

“I only thought you looked as if you knew where he was.”

“No.  But he may have gone out after birds and forgotten the time.  Here’s tea!”

These few words had renewed in Maurice the fever of impatience to get away and meet his enemy.  This waiting, this acting of a part, this suspense, were almost unbearable.  All the time that Hermione slept he had been thinking, turning over again and again in his mind the coming scene, trying to imagine how it would be, how violent or how deadly, trying to decide exactly what line of conduct he should pursue.  What would Salvatore demand?  What would he say or do?  And where would they meet?  If Salvatore waited for his coming they would meet at the House of the Sirens.  And Maddalena?  She would be there.  His heart sickened.  He was ready to face a man but not Maddalena.  He thought of Gaspare’s story of the fallen olive-branch upon which Salvatore had spat.  It was strange to be here in this calm place with these two happy people, wife and friend, and to wonder what was waiting for him down there by the sea.

How lonely our souls are! something like that he thought.  Circumstances were turning him away from his thoughtless youth.  He had imagined it sinking down out of his sight into the purple sea, with the magic island in which it had danced the tarantella and heard the voice of the siren.  But was it not leaving him, vanishing from him while still his feet trod the island and his eyes saw her legendary mountains?

Gaspare, he knew, was on the watch.  That was why he was absent from his duties.  But the hour was at hand when he would be relieved.  The evening was coming.  Maurice was glad.  He was ready to face even violence, but he felt that he could not for much longer endure suspense and play the quiet host and husband.

Tea was over and Gaspare had not returned.  The clock he had bought at the fair struck five.

“I ought to be going,” Artois said.

There was reluctance in his voice.  Hermione noticed it and knew what he was feeling.

“You must come up again very soon,” she said.

“Yes, monsieur, come to-morrow, won’t you?” Maurice seconded her.

The thought of what was going to happen before to-morrow made it seem to him a very long way off.

Hermione looked pleased.

“I must not be a bore,” Artois answered.  “I must not remind you and myself of limpets.  There are rocks in your garden which might suggest the comparison.  I think to-morrow I ought to stay quietly in Marechiaro.”

“No, no,” said Maurice.  “Do come to-morrow.”

“Thank you very much.  I can’t pretend that I do not wish to come.  And, now that donkey-boy has he climbed up, I wonder?”

“I’ll go and see,” said Maurice.

He was feverishly impatient to get rid of Artois.  He hurried to the arch.  A long way off, near the path that led up from the ravine, he saw a figure with a gun.  He was not sure, but he was almost sure that it was Gaspare.  It must be he.  The gun made him look, indeed, a sentinel.  If Salvatore came the boy would stop him, stop him, if need be, at the cost of his own life.  Maurice felt sure of that, and realized the danger of setting such faithfulness and violence to be sentinel.  He stood for a moment looking at the figure.  Yes, he knew it now for Gaspare.  The boy had forgotten tea-time, had forgotten everything, in his desire to carry out his padrone’s instructions.  The signora was not to know.  She was never to know.  And Salvatore might come.  Very well, then, he was there in the sun ready.

“We’ll never part from Gaspare,” Maurice thought, as he looked and understood.

He saw no other figure.  The donkey-boy had perhaps forgotten his mission or had started late.  Maurice chafed bitterly at the delay.  But he could not well leave his guest on this first day of his coming to Monte Amato, more especially after the events of the preceding day.  To do so would seem discourteous.  He returned to the terrace ill at ease, but strove to disguise his restlessness.  It was nearly six o’clock when the boy at last appeared.  Artois at once bade Hermione and Maurice good-bye and mounted his donkey.

“You will come to-morrow, then?” Maurice said to him at parting.

“I haven’t the courage to refuse,” Artois replied.  “Good-bye.”

He had already shaken Maurice’s hand, but now he extended his hand again.

“It is good of you to make me so welcome,” he said.

He paused, holding Maurice’s hand in his.  Both Hermione and Maurice thought he was going to say something more, but he glanced at her, dropped his host’s hand, lifted his soft hat, and signed to the boy to lead the donkey away.

Hermione and Maurice followed to the arch, and from there watched him riding slowly down till he was out of sight.  Maurice looked for Gaspare, but did not see him.  He must have moved into the shadow of the ravine.

“Dear old Emile!” Hermione said.  “He’s been happy to-day.  You’ve made him very happy, Maurice.  Bless you for it!”

Maurice said nothing.  Now the moment had arrived when he could go he felt a strange reluctance to say good-bye to Hermione, even for a short time.  So much might must happen before he saw her again that evening.

“And you?” she said, at last, as he was silent.  “Are you really going down to bathe?  Isn’t it too late?”

“Oh no.  I must have a dip.  It will do me all the good in the world.”  He tried to speak buoyantly, but the words seemed to himself to come heavily from his tongue.

“Will you take Tito?”

“I no, I think I’ll walk.  I shall get down quicker, and I like going into the sea when I’m hot.  I’ll just fetch my bathing things.”

They walked back together to the house.  Maurice wondered what had suddenly come to him.  He felt horribly sad now yet he wished to get the scene that awaited him over.  He was longing to have it over.  He went into the house, got his bathing-dress and towels, and came out again onto the terrace.

“I shall be a little late back, I suppose,” he said.

“Yes.  It’s six o’clock now.  Shall we dine at half-past eight or better say nine?  That will give you plenty of time to come up quietly.”

“Yes.  Let’s say nine.”

Still he did not move to go.

“Have you been happy to-day, Hermione?” he asked.

“Yes, very since this morning.”

“Since?”

“Yes.  This morning I ”

She stopped.

“I was a little puzzled,” she said, after a minute, with her usual frankness.  “Tell me, Maurice you weren’t made unhappy by by what I told you?”

“About about the child?”

“Yes.”

He did not answer with words, but he put his arms about her and kissed her, as he had not kissed her since she went away to Africa.  She shut her eyes.  Presently she felt the pressure of his arms relax.

“I’m perfectly happy now,” she said.  “Perfectly happy.”

He moved away a step or two.  His face was flushed, and she thought that he looked younger, that the boyish expression she loved had come back to him.

“Good-bye, Hermione,” he said.

Still he did not go.  She thought that he had something more to say but did not know how to say it.  She felt so certain of this that she said: 

“What is it, Maurice?”

“We shall come back to Sicily, I suppose, sha’n’t we, some time or other?”

“Surely.  Many times, I hope.”

“Suppose one can never tell what will happen suppose one of us were to die here?”

“Yes,” she said, soberly.

“Don’t you think it would be good to lie there where we lay this afternoon, under the oak-trees, in sight of Etna and the sea?  I think it would.  Good-bye, Hermione.”

He swung the bathing-dress and the towels up over his shoulder and went away through the arch.  She followed and watched him springing down the mountain-side.  Just before he reached the ravine he turned and waved his hand to her.  His movements, that last gesture, were brimful of energy and of life.  He acted better then than he had that day upon the terrace.  But the sense of progress, the feeling that he was going to meet fate in the person of Salvatore, quickened the blood within him.  At last the suspense would be over.  At last he would be obliged to play not the actor but the man.  He longed to be down by the sea.  The youth in him rose up at the thought of action, and his last farewell to Hermione, looking down to him from the arch, was bold and almost careless.

Scarcely had he got into the ravine before he met Gaspare.  He stopped.  The boy’s face was aflame with expression as he stood, holding his gun, in front of his padrone.

“Gaspare!” Maurice said to him.

He held out his hand and grasped the boy’s hot hand.

“I sha’n’t forget your faithful service,” he said.  “Thank you, Gaspare.”

He wanted to say more, to find other and far different words.  But he could not.

“Let me come with you, signorino.”

The boy’s voice was intensely, almost savagely, earnest.

“No.  You must stay with the signora.”

“I want to come with you.”

His great eyes were fastened on his padrone’s face.

“I have always been with you.”

“But you were with the signora first.  You were her servant.  You must stay with her now.  Remember one thing, Gaspare the signora is never to know.”

The boy nodded.  His eyes still held Maurice.  They glittered as if with leaping fires.  That deep and passionate spirit of Sicilian loyalty, which is almost savage in its intensity and heedless of danger, which is ready to go to hell with, or for, a friend or a master who is beloved and believed in, was awake in Gaspare, illuminated him at this moment.  The peasant boy looked noble.

“Mayn’t I come with you, signorino?”

“Gaspare,” Maurice said, “I must leave some one with the padrona.  Salvatore might come still.  I may miss him going down.  Whom can I trust to stop Salvatore, if he comes, but you?  You see?”

“Va bene, signorino.”

The boy seemed convinced, but he suffered and did not try to conceal it.

“Now I must go,” Maurice said.

He shook Gaspare’s hand.

“Have you got the revolver, signorino?” said the boy.

“No.  I am not going to fight with Salvatore.”

“How do you know what Salvatore will do?”

Maurice looked down upon the stones that lay on the narrow path.

“My revolver can have nothing to do with Maddalena’s father,” he said.

He sighed.

“That’s how it is, Gaspare.  Addio!”

“Addio, signorino.”

Maurice went on down the path into the shadow of the trees.  Presently he turned.  Gaspare stood quite still, looking after him.

“Signorino!” he called.  “May I not come?  I want to come with you.”

Maurice waved his hand towards the mountain-side.

“Go to the signora,” he called back.  “And look out for me to-night.  Addio, Gaspare!”

The boy’s “Addio!” came to him sadly through the gathering shadows of the evening.

Presently Hermione, who was sitting alone on the terrace with a book in her lap which she was not reading, saw Gaspare walking listlessly through the archway holding his gun.  He came slowly towards her, lifted his hat, and was going on without a word, but she stopped him.

“Why, Gaspare,” she said, lightly, “you forgot us to-day.  How was that?”

“Signora?”

Again she saw the curious, almost ugly, look of obstinacy, which she had already noticed, come into his face.

“You didn’t remember about tea-time!”

“Signora,” he answered, “I am sorry.”

He looked at her fixedly while he spoke.

“I am sorry,” he said again.

“Never mind,” Hermione said, unable to blame him on this first day of her return.  “I dare say you have got out of regular habits while I’ve been away.  What have you been doing all the time?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Niente.”

Again she wondered what was the matter with the boy to-day.  Where were his life and gayety?  Where was his sense of fun?  He used to be always joking, singing.  But now he was serious, almost heavy in demeanor.

“Gaspare,” she said, jokingly, “I think you’ve all become very solemn without me.  I am the old person of the party, but I begin to believe that it is I who keep you lively.  I mustn’t go away again.”

“No, signora,” he answered, earnestly; “you must never go away from us again.  You should never have gone away from us.”

The deep solemnity of his great eyes startled her.  He put on his hat and went away round the angle of the cottage.

“What can be the matter with him?” she thought.

She remained sitting there on the terrace, wondering.  Now she thought over things quietly, it struck her as strange the fact that she had left behind her in the priest’s house three light-hearted people, and had come back to find Lucrezia drowned in sorrow, Gaspare solemn, even mysterious in his manner, and her husband but here her thoughts paused, not labelling Maurice.  At first he had puzzled her the most.  But she thought she had found reasons for the change a passing one, she felt sure in him.  He had secretly resented her absence, and, though utterly free from any ignoble suspicion of her, he had felt boyishly jealous of her friendship with Emile.  That was very natural.  For this was their honeymoon.  She considered it their honeymoon prolonged, delightfully prolonged, beyond any fashionable limit.  Lucrezia’s depression was easily comprehensible.  The change in her husband she accounted for; but now here was Gaspare looking dismal!

“I must cheer them all up,” she thought to herself.  “This beautiful time mustn’t end dismally.”

And then she thought of the inevitable departure.  Was Maurice looking forward to it, desiring it?  He had spoken that day as if he wished to be off.  In London she had been able to imagine him in the South, in the highway of the sun.  But now that she was here in Sicily she could not imagine him in London.

“He is not in his right place there,” she thought.

Yet they must go, and soon.  She knew that they were going, and yet she could not feel that they were going.  What she had said under the oak-trees was true.  In the spring her tender imagination had played softly with the idea of Sicily’s joy in the possession of her son, of Maurice.  Would Sicily part from him without an effort to retain him?  Would Sicily let him go?  She smiled to herself at her fancies.  But if Sicily kept him, how would she keep him?  The smile left her lips and her eyes as she thought of Maurice’s suggestion.  That would be too horrible.  God would not allow that.  And yet what tragedies He allowed to come into the lives of others.  She faced certain facts, as she sat there, facts permitted, or deliberately brought about by the Divine Will.  The scourge of war that sowed sorrows over a land as the sower in the field scatters seeds.  She, like others, had sat at home and read of battles in which thousands of men had been killed, and she had grieved or had she really grieved, grieved with her heart?  She began to wonder, thinking of Maurice’s veiled allusion to the possibility of his death.  He was the spirit of youth to her.  And all the boys slain in battle!  Had not each one of them represented the spirit of youth to some one, to some woman mother, sister, wife, lover?

What were those women’s feelings towards God?

She wondered.  She wondered exceedingly.  And presently a terrible thought came into her mind.  It was this.  How can one forgive God if He snatches away the spirit of youth that one loves?

Under the shadow of the oak-trees she had lain that day and looked out upon the shining world upon the waters, upon the plains, upon the mountains, upon the calling coast-line and the deep passion of the blue.  And she had felt the infinite love of God.  When she had thought of God, she had thought of Him as the great Provider of happiness, as One who desired, with a heart too large and generous for the mere accurate conception of man, the joy of man.

But Maurice was beside her then.

Those whose lives had been ruined by great tragedies, when they looked out upon the shining world what must they think, feel?

She strove to imagine.  Their conception of God must surely be very different from hers.

Once she had been almost unable to believe that God could choose her to be the recipient of a supreme happiness.  But we accustom ourselves with a wonderful readiness to a happy fate.  She had come back she had been allowed to return to the Garden of Paradise.  And this fact had given to her a confidence in life which was almost audacious.  So now, even while she imagined the sorrows of others, half strove to imagine what her own sorrows might be, her inner feeling was still one of confidence.  She looked out on the shining world, and in her heart was the shining world.  She looked out on the glory of the blue, and in her heart was the glory of the blue.  The world shone for her because she had Maurice.  She knew that.  But there was light in it.  There would always be light whatever happened to any human creature.  There would always be the sun, the great symbol of joy.  It rose even upon the battle-field where the heaps of the dead were lying.

She could not realize sorrow to-day.  She must see the sunlight even in the deliberate visions conjured up by her imagination.

Gaspare did not reappear.  For a long time she was alone.  She watched the changing of the light, the softening of the great landscape as the evening approached.  Sometimes she thought of Maurice’s last words about being laid to rest some day in the shadows of the oak-trees, in sight of Etna and the sea.  When the years had gone, perhaps they would lie together in Sicily, wrapped in the final siesta of the body.  Perhaps the unborn child, of whose beginning she was mystically conscious, would lay them to rest there.

“Buon riposo.”  She loved the Sicilian good-night.  Better than any text she would love to have those simple words written above her sleeping-place and his.  “Buon riposo!” she murmured the words to herself as she looked at the quiet of the hills, at the quiet of the sea.  The glory of the world was inspiring, but the peace of the world was almost more uplifting, she thought.  Far off, in the plain, she discerned tiny trails of smoke from Sicilian houses among the orange-trees beside the sea.  The gold was fading.  The color of the waters was growing paler, gentler, the color of the sky less passionate.  The last point of the coast-line was only a shadow now, scarcely that.  Somewhere was the sunset, its wonder unseen by her, but realized because of this growing tenderness, that was like a benediction falling upon her from a distant love, intent to shield her and her little home from sorrow and from danger.  Nature was whispering her “Buon riposo!” Her hushed voice spoke withdrawn among the mountains, withdrawn upon the spaces of the sea.  The heat of the golden day was blessed, but after it how blessed was the cool of the dim night!

Again she thought that the God who had placed man in the magnificent scheme of the world must have intended and wished him to be always happy there.  Nature seemed to be telling her this, and her heart was convinced by Nature, though the story of the Old Testament had sometimes left her smiling or left her wondering.  Men had written a Bible.  God had written a Bible, too.  And here she read its pages and was made strong by it.

“Signora!”

Hermione started and turned her head.

“Lucrezia!  What is it?”

“What time is it, signora?”

Hermione looked at her watch.

“Nearly eight o’clock.  An hour still before supper.”

“I’ve got everything ready.”

“To-night we’ve only cold things, haven’t we?  You made us a very nice collazione.  The French signore praised your cooking, and he’s very particular, as French people generally are.  So you ought to be proud of yourself.”

Lucrezia smiled, but only for an instant.  Then she stood with an anxious face, twisting her apron.

“Signora!”

“Yes?  What is it?”

“Would you mind may I ”

She stopped.

“Why, Lucrezia, are you afraid of me?  I’ve certainly been away too long!”

“No, no, signora, but ” Tears hung in her eyes.  “Will you let me go away if I promise to be back by nine?”

“But you can’t go to Marechiaro in ”

“No, signora.  I only want to go to the mountain over there under Castel Vecchio.  I want to go to the Madonna.”

Hermione took one of the girl’s hands.

“To the Madonna della Rocca?”

“Si, signora.”

“I understand.”

“I have a candle to burn to the Madonna.  If I go now I can be back before nine.”

She stood gazing pathetically, like a big child, at her padrona.

“Lucrezia,” Hermione said, moved to a great pity by her own great happiness, “would you mind if I came, too?  I think I should like to say a prayer for you to-night.  I am not a Catholic, but my prayer cannot hurt you.”

Lucrezia suddenly forgot distinctions, threw her arms round Hermione, and began to sob.

“Hush, you must be brave!”

She smoothed the girl’s dark hair gently.

“Have you got your candle?”

“Si.”

She showed it.

“Let us go quickly, then.  Where’s Gaspare?”

“Close to the house, signora, on the mountain.  One cannot speak with him to-day.”

“Why not?”

“Non lo so.  But he is terrible to-day!”

So Lucrezia had noticed Gaspare’s strangeness, too, even in the midst of her sorrow!

“Gaspare!” Hermione called.

There was no answer.

“Gaspare!”

She called louder.

“Si, signora!”

The voice came from somewhere behind the house.

“I am going for a walk with Lucrezia.  We shall be back at nine.  Tell the padrone if he comes.”

“Si, signora.”

The two women set out without seeing Gaspare.  They walked in silence down the mountain-path.  Lucrezia held her candle carefully, like one in a procession.  She was not sobbing now.  There were no tears in her eyes.  The companionship and the sympathy of her padrona had given her some courage, some hope, had taken away from her the desolate feeling, the sensation of abandonment which had been torturing her.  And then she had an almost blind faith in the Madonna della Rocca.  And the padrona was going to pray, too.  She was not a Catholic, but she was a lady and she was good.  The Madonna della Rocca must surely be influenced by her petition.

So Lucrezia plucked up a little courage.  The activity of the walk helped her.  She knew the solace of movement.  And perhaps, without being conscious of it, she was influenced by the soft beauty of the evening, by the peace of the hills.  But as they crossed the ravine they heard the tinkle of bells, and a procession of goats tripped by them, following a boy who was twittering upon a flute.  He was playing the tune of the tarantella, that tune which Hermione associated with careless joy in the sun.  He passed down into the shadows of the trees, and gradually the airy rapture of his fluting and the tinkle of the goat-bells died away towards Marechiaro.  Then Hermione saw tears rolling down over Lucrezia’s brown cheeks.

“He can’t play it like Sebastiano, signora!” she said.

The little tune had brought back all her sorrow.

“Perhaps we shall soon hear Sebastiano play it again,” said Hermione.

They began to climb upward on the far side of the ravine towards the fierce silhouette of the Saracenic castle on the height.  Beneath the great crag on which it was perched was the shrine of the Madonna della Rocca.  Night was coming now, and the little lamp before the shrine shone gently, throwing a ray of light upon the stones of the path.  When they reached it, Lucrezia crossed herself, and they stood together for a moment looking at the faded painting of the Madonna, almost effaced against its rocky background.  Within the glass that sheltered it stood vases of artificial flowers, and on the ledge outside the glass were two or three bunches of real flowers, placed there by peasants returning to their homes in Castel Vecchio from their labors in the vineyards and the orchards.  There were also two branches with clustering, red-gold oranges lying among the flowers.  It was a strange, wild place.  The precipice of rock, which the castello dominated, leaned slightly forward above the head of the Madonna, as if it meditated overwhelming her.  But she smiled gently, as if she had no fear of it, bending down her pale eyes to the child who lay upon her girlish knees.  Among the bowlders, the wild cactus showed its spiked leaves, and in the daytime the long black snakes sunned themselves upon the stones.

To Hermione this lonely and faded Madonna, smiling calmly beneath the savagely frowning rock upon which dead men had built long years ago a barbarous fastness, was touching in her solitude.  There was something appealing in her frailness, in her thin, anæmic calm.  How long had she been here?  How long would she remain?  She was fading away, as things fade in the night.  Yet she had probably endured for years, would still be here for years to come, would be here to receive the wild flowers of peasant children, the prayers of peasant lovers, the adoration of the poor, who, having very little here, put their faith in far-off worlds, where they will have harvests surely without reaping in the heat of the sun, where they will have good wine without laboring in the vineyards, where they will be able to rest without the thought coming to them, “If to-day I rest, to-morrow I shall starve.”

As Hermione looked at the painting lit by the little lamp, at the gifts of the flowers and the fruit, she began to feel as if indeed a woman dwelt there, in that niche of the crag, as if a heart were there, a soul to pity, an ear to listen.

Lucrezia knelt down quietly, lit her candle, turned it upside down till the hot wax dripped onto the rock and made a foundation for it, then stuck it upright, crossed herself silently, and began to pray.  Her lips moved quickly.  The candle-flame flickered for a moment, then burned steadily, sending its thin fire up towards the evening star.  After a moment Hermione knelt down beside her.

She had never before prayed at a shrine.  It was curious to be kneeling under this savage wall of rock above which the evening star showed itself in the clear heaven of night.  She looked at the star and at the Madonna, then at the little bunches of flowers, and at Lucrezia’s candle.  These gifts of the poor moved her heart.  Poverty giving is beautiful.  She thought that, and was almost ashamed of the comfort of her life.  She wished she had brought a candle, too.  Then she bent her head and began to pray that Sebastiano might remember Lucrezia and return to her.  To make her prayer more earnest, she tried to realize Lucrezia’s sorrow by putting herself in Lucrezia’s place, and Maurice in Sebastiano’s.  It was such a natural effort as people make every day, every hour.  If Maurice had forgotten her in absence, had given his love to another, had not cared to return to her!  If she were alone now in Sicily while he was somewhere else, happy with some one else!

Suddenly the wildness of this place where she knelt became terrible to her.  She felt the horror of solitude, of approaching darkness.  The outlines of the rocks and of the ruined castle looked threatening, alarming.  The pale light of the lamp before the shrine and of Lucrezia’s votive candle drew to them not only the fluttering night-moths, but the spirits of desolation and of hollow grief that dwell among the waste places and among the hills.  Night seemed no more beneficent, but dreary as a spectre that came to rob the world of all that made it beautiful.  The loneliness of deserted women encompassed her.  Was there any other loneliness comparable to it?

She felt sure that there was not, and she found herself praying not only for Lucrezia, but for all women who were sad because they loved, for all women who were deserted by those whom they loved, or who had lost those whom they loved.

At first she believed that she was addressing her prayer to the Madonna della Rocca, the Blessed Virgin of the Rocks, whose pale image was before her.  But presently she knew that her words, the words of her lips and the more passionate words of her heart, were going out to a Being before whom the sun burned as a lamp and the moon as a votive taper.  She was thinking of women, she was praying for women, but she was no longer praying to a woman.  It seemed to her as if she was so ardent a suitor that she pushed past the Holy Mother of God into the presence of God Himself.  He had created women.  He had created the love of women.  To Him she would, she must, appeal.

Often she had prayed before, but never as now, never with such passion, with such a sensation of personally pleading.  The effort of her heart was like the effort of womanhood.  It seemed to her and she had no feeling that this was blasphemous as if God knew, understood, everything of the world He had created except perhaps this the inmost agony some women suffer, as if she, perhaps, could make Him understand this by her prayer.  And she strove to recount this agony, to make it clear to God.

Was it a presumptuous effort?  She did not feel that it was.  And now she felt selfless.  She was no more thinking of herself, was no longer obliged to concentrate her thoughts and her imagination upon herself and the one she loved best.  She had passed beyond that, as she had passed beyond the Madonna della Rocca.  She was the voice and the heart not of a woman, but of woman praying in the night to the God who had made woman and the night.

From behind a rock Gaspare watched the two praying women.  He had not forgotten his padrone’s words, and when Hermione and Lucrezia set off from the cottage he had followed them, faithful to his trust.  Intent upon their errand, they had not seen him.  His step was light among the stones, and he had kept at a distance.  Now he stood still, gazing at them as they prayed.

Gaspare did not believe in priests.  Very few Sicilians do.  An uncle of his was a priest’s son, and he had other reasons, quite sufficient to his mind, for being incredulous of the sanctity of those who celebrated the mass to which he seldom went.  But he believed in God, and he believed superstitiously in the efficacy of the Madonna and in the powers of the saints.  Once his little brother had fallen dangerously ill on the festa of San Giorgio, the santo patrono of Castel Vecchio.  He had gone to the festa, and had given all his money, five lire, to the saint to heal his brother.  Next day the child was well.  In misfortune he would probably utter a prayer, or burn a candle, himself.  That Lucrezia might think that she had reason to pray he understood, though he doubted whether the Madonna and all the saints could do much for the reclamation of his friend Sebastiano.  But why should the padrona kneel there out-of-doors sending up such earnest petitions?  She was not a Catholic.  He had never seen her pray before.  He looked on with wonder, presently with discomfort, almost with anger.  To-night he was what he would himself have called “nervoso,” and anything that irritated his already strung-up nerves roused his temper.  He was in anxiety about his padrone, and he wanted to be back at the priest’s house, he wanted to see his padrone again at the earliest possible moment.  The sight of his padrona committing an unusual action alarmed him.  Was she, then, afraid as he was afraid?  Did she know, suspect anything?  His experience of women was that whenever they were in trouble they went for comfort and advice to the Madonna and the saints.

He grew more and more uneasy.  Presently he drew softly a little nearer.  It was getting late.  Night had fallen.  He must know the result of the padrone’s interview with Salvatore, and he could not leave the padrona.  Well, then !  He crept nearer and nearer till at last he was close to the shrine and could see the Madonna smiling.  Then he crossed himself and said, softly: 

“Signora!”

Hermione did not hear him.  She was wrapped in the passion of her prayer.

“Signora!”

He bent forward and touched her on the shoulder.  She started, turned her head, and rose to her feet.

“Gaspare!”

She looked startled.  This abrupt recall to the world confused her for a moment.

“Gaspare!  What is it?  The padrone?”

He took off his cap.

“Signora, do you know how late it is?”

“Has the padrone come back?”

Lucrezia was on her feet, too.  The tears were in her eyes.

“Scusi, signora!” said Gaspare.

Hermione began to look more natural.

“Has the padrone come back and sent you for us?”

“He did not send me, signora.  It was getting dark.  I thought it best to come.  But I expect he is back.  I expect he is waiting for us now.”

“You came to guard me?”

She smiled.  She liked his watchfulness.

“What’s the time?”

She looked at her watch.

“Why, it is nine already!  We must hurry.  Come, Lucrezia!”

They went quickly down the path.

They did not talk as they went.  Gaspare led the way.  It was obvious that he was in great haste.  Sometimes he forgot that the padrona was not so light-footed as he was, and sprang on so swiftly that she called to him to wait.  When at last they came in sight of the arch Hermione and Lucrezia were panting.

“The padrone will forgive us when he sees how we have hurried,” said Hermione, laughing at her own fatigue.  “Go on, Gaspare!”

She stood for a moment leaning against the arch.

“And you go quickly, Lucrezia, and get the supper.  The padrone will be hungry after his bath.”

“Si, signora.”

Lucrezia went off to the back of the house.  Then Hermione drew a long breath, recovered herself, and walked to the terrace.

Gaspare met her with flaming eyes.

“The padrone is not here, signora.  The padrone has not come back!”

He stood and stared at her.

It was not yet very dark.  They stood in a sort of soft obscurity in which all objects could be seen, not with sharp clearness, but distinctly.

“Are you sure, Gaspare?”

“Si, signora!  The padrone has not come back.  He is not here.”

The boy’s voice sounded angry, Hermione thought.  It startled her.  And the way he looked at her startled her too.

“You have looked in the house?  Maurice!” she called.  “Maurice!”

“I say the padrone is not here, signora!”

Never before had Gaspare spoken to Hermione like this, in a tone almost that she ought to have resented.  She did not resent it, but it filled her with a creeping uneasiness.

“What time is it?  Nearly half-past nine.  He ought to be here by now.”

The boy nodded, keeping his flaming eyes on her.

“I said nine to give him lots of time to get cool, and change his clothes, and it’s very odd.”

“I will go down to the sea, signora.  A rivederci.”

He swung round to go, but Hermione caught his arm.

“No; don’t go.  Wait a moment, Gaspare.  Don’t leave me like this!”

She detained him.

“Why, what’s the matter?  What what are you afraid of?”

Instantly there came into his face the ugly, obstinate look she had already noticed, and wondered at, that day.

“What are you afraid of, Gaspare?” she repeated.

Her voice vibrated with a strength of feeling that as yet she herself scarcely understood.

“Niente!” the boy replied, doggedly.

“Well, but then” she laughed “why shouldn’t the padrone be a few minutes late?  It would be absurd to go down.  You might miss him on the way.”

Gaspare said nothing.  He stood there with his arms hanging and the ugly look still on his face.

“Mightn’t you?  Mightn’t you, Gaspare, if he came up by Marechiaro?”

“Si, signora.”

“Well, then ”

They stood there in silence for a minute.  Hermione broke it.

“He you know how splendidly the padrone swims,” she said.  “Don’t you, Gaspare?”

The boy said nothing.

“Gaspare, why don’t you answer when I speak to you?”

“Because I’ve got nothing to say, signora.”

His tone was almost rude.  At that moment he nearly hated Hermione for holding him by the arm.  If she had been a man he would have struck her off and gone.

“Gaspare!” she said, but not angrily.

Her instinct told her that he was obliged to be utterly natural just then under the spell of some violent feeling.  She knew he loved his padrone.  The feeling must be one of anxiety.  But it was absurd to be so anxious.  It was ridiculous, hysterical.  She said to herself that it was Gaspare’s excitement that was affecting her.  She was catching his mood.

“My dear Gaspare,” she said, “we must just wait.  The padrone will be here in a minute.  Perhaps he has come up by Marechiaro.  Very likely he has looked in at the hotel to see how the sick signore is after his day up here.  That is it, I feel sure.”

She looked at him for agreement and met his stern and flaming eyes, utterly unmoved by what she had said, utterly unconvinced.  At this moment she could not deny that this untrained, untutored nature had power over hers.  She let go his arm and sat down by the wall.

“Let us wait out here for a minute,” she said.

“Va bene, signora.”

He stood there quite still, but she felt as if in this unnatural stillness there was violent movement, and she looked away from him.  It was fully night now.  She gazed down at the ravine.  By that way Maurice would come, unless he really had gone to Marechiaro to see Artois.  She had suggested to Gaspare that this might be the reason of Maurice’s delay, but she knew that she did not think it was.  Yet what other reason could there be?  He swam splendidly.  She said that to herself.  She kept on saying it.  Why?

Slowly the minutes crept by.  The silence around them was intense, yet she felt no calm, no peace in it.  Like the stillness of Gaspare it seemed to be violent.  It began to frighten her.  She began to wish for movement, for sound.  Presently a light shone in the cottage.

“Signora!  Signora!”

Lucrezia’s voice was calling.

“What is it?” she said.

“Supper is quite ready, signora.”

“The signore has not come back yet.  He is a little late.”

Lucrezia came to the top of the steps.

“Where can the signore be, signora?” she said.  “It only takes ”

Her voice died suddenly away.  Hermione looked quickly at Gaspare, and saw that he was gazing ferociously at Lucrezia as if to bid her be silent.

“Gaspare!” Hermione said, suddenly getting up.

“Signora?”

“I it’s odd the signore’s not coming.”

The boy answered nothing.

“Perhaps perhaps there really has been an an accident.”

She tried to speak lightly.

“I don’t think he would keep me waiting like this if ”

“I will go down to the sea,” the boy said.  “Signora, let me go down to the sea!”

There was a fury of pleading in his voice.  Hermione hesitated, but only for a moment.  Then she answered: 

“Yes, you shall go.  Stop, Gaspare!”

He had moved towards the arch.

“I’m coming with you.”

“You, signora?”

“Yes.”

“You cannot come!  You are not to come!”

He was actually commanding her his padrona.

“You are not to come, signora!” he repeated, violently.

“But I am coming,” she said.

They stood facing each other.  It was like a battle, Gaspare’s manner, his words, the tone in which they were spoken all made her understand that there was some sinister terror in his soul.  She did not ask what it was.  She did not dare to ask.  But she said again: 

“I am coming with you, Gaspare.”

He stared at her and knew that from that decision there was no appeal.  If he went she would accompany him.

“Let us wait here, signora,” he said.  “The padrone will be coming presently.  We had better wait here.”

But now she was as determined on activity as before she had been or seemed anxious for patience.

“I am going,” she answered.  “If you like to let me go alone you can.”

She spoke very quietly, but there was a thrill in her voice.  The boy saw it was useless just then to pit his will against hers.  He dropped his head, and the ugly look came back to his face, but he made no reply.

“We shall be back very soon, Lucrezia.  We are going a little way down to meet the padrone.  Come, Gaspare!”

She spoke to him gently, kindly, almost pleadingly.  He made an odd sound.  It was not a word, nor was it a sob.  She had never heard anything like it before.  It seemed to her to be like a smothered outcry of a heart torn by some acute emotion.

“Gaspare!” she said.  “We shall meet him.  We shall meet him in the ravine!”

Then they set out.  As she was going, Hermione cast a look down towards the sea.  Always at this hour, when night had come, a light shone there, the light in the siren’s house.  To-night that little spark was not kindled.  She saw only the darkness.  She stopped.

“Why,” she said, “there’s no light!”

“Signora?”

She pointed over the wall.

“There’s no light!” she repeated.

This little fact she did not know why frightened her.

“Signora, I am going!”

“Gaspare!” she said.  “Give me your hand to help me down the path.  It’s so dark.  Isn’t it?”

She put out her hand.  The boy’s hand was cold.

They set out towards the sea.