"Very well, Gaspare," she said, submissively.
He smiled at her with satisfaction.
"I understand girls," he said. "You must keep them down or they will keep
you down. Every girl in Marechiaro is like that. We keep them down
therefore."
He spoke calmly, evidently quite without thought that he was speaking to
a woman.
"May I go to bed, signora?" he added. "I got up at four this morning."
"At four!"
"To be sure all was ready for you and the signore."
"Gaspare! Go at once. We will go to bed, too. Shall we, Maurice?"
"Yes. I'm ready."
Just as they were going up the steps into the house, he turned to take a
last look at the night. Far down below him over the terrace wall he saw a
bright, steady light.
"Is that on the sea, Hermione?" he asked, pointing to it. "Do they fish
there at night?"
"Oh yes. No doubt it is a fisherman."
Gaspare shook his head.
"You understand?" said Hermione to him in Italian.
"Si, signora. That is the light in the Casa delle Sirene."
"But no one lives there."
"Oh, it has been built up now, and Salvatore Buonavista lives there with
Maddalena. Buon riposo, signora. Buon riposo, signore."
"Buon riposo, Gaspare."
And Maurice echoed it: "Buon riposo."
As Gaspare went away round the angle of the cottage to his room near
Tito's stable, Maurice added: "Buon riposo. It's an awfully nice way of saying good-night. I feel as if
I'd said it before, somehow."
"Your blood has said it without your knowing it, perhaps many times. Are
you coming, Maurice?"
He turned once more, looked down at the light shining in the house of the
sirens, then followed Hermione in through the open door.