"Giuseppe!" said the doctor.
"Signore?"
"The signora has been away, hasn't she?"
"Si signore. In Africa."
"Nursing that sick stranger. And now directly she comes back here's this
happening to her! Per Dio!"
He shook his head.
"Somebody must have looked on the povera signora with the evil-eye,
Signor Dottore."
Giuseppe crossed himself.
"It seems so," the doctor replied, gravely.
He was almost as superstitious as the contadini among whom he labored.
"Ecco, Signor Dottore!"
The doctor looked up. At the arch stood a figure holding a little lamp.
Almost immediately, two more figures appeared behind it.
"Il dottore! Ecco il dottore!"
There was a murmur of voices in the dark. As the donkey came up the
excited fishermen crowded round, all speaking at once.
"He is dead, Signor Dottore. The povero signore is dead!"
"Let the Signor Dottore come to him, Beppe! What do you know? Let the--"
"Sure enough he is dead! Why, he must have been in the water a good hour.
He is all swollen with the water and--"
"It is his head, Signor Dottore! If it had not been for his coming
against the rocks he would not have been hurt. Per Dio, he can swim like
a fish, the povero signorino. I have seen him swim. Why, even Peppino--"
"The signora wants us all to go away, Signor Dottore. She begs us to go
and leave her alone with the povero signore!"
"Gaspare is in such a state! You would not know him. And the povera
signora, she is all dripping wet. She has been into the sea, and now she
has carried the head of the povero signore all the way up the mountain.
She would not let any one--"
A succession of cries came out of the darkness, hysterical cries that
ended in prolonged sobbing.
"That is Lucrezia!" cried one of the fishermen. "Madonna! That is
Lucrezia!"
"Mamma mia! Mamma mia!"
Their voices were loud in the night. The doctor pushed his way between
the men and came onto the terrace in front of the steps that led into the
sitting-room.
Gaspare was standing there alone. His face was almost unrecognizable. It
looked battered, puffy, and inflamed, as if he had been drinking and
fighting. There were no tears in his eyes now, but long, violent sobs
shook his body from time to time, and his blistered lips opened and shut
mechanically with each sob. He stared dully at the doctor, but did not
say a word, or move to get out of the way.