"Signorino!"

"Well?"

"Where were you and Maddalena when I was helping with the fireworks?"

"Close by."

"Did you see them all? Did you see the Regina Margherita?"

"Si."

"I looked round for you, but I could not see you."

"There was such a crowd and it was dark."

"Yes. Then you were there, where I left you?"

"We may have moved a little, but we were not far off."

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"I cannot think why I could not find you when the fireworks were over."

"It was the crowd. I thought it best to go to the stable without

searching for you. I knew you and Salvatore would be there."

The boy was silent for a moment. Then he said: "Salvatore was very angry when he saw me come into the stable without

you."

"Why?"

"He said I ought not to have left my padrone."

"And what did you say?"

"I told him I would not be spoken to by him. If you had not come in just

then I think there would have been a baruffa. Salvatore is a bad man, and

always ready with his knife. And he had been drinking."

"He was quiet enough coming home."

"I do not like his being so quiet."

"What does it matter?"

Again there was a pause. Then Gaspare said: "Now that the signora has come back we shall not go any more to the Casa

delle Sirene, shall we?"

"No, I don't suppose we shall go any more."

"It is better like that, signorino. It is much better that we do not go."

Maurice said nothing.

"We have been there too often," added Gaspare. "I am glad the signora has

come back. I am sorry she ever went away."

"It was not our fault that she went," Maurice said, in a hard voice like

that of a man trying to justify something, to defend himself against some

accusation. "We did not want the signora to go."

"No, signore."

Gaspare's voice sounded almost apologetic. He was a little startled by

his padrone's tone.

"It was a pity she went," he continued. "The poor signora----"

"Why is it such a pity?" Maurice interrupted, almost roughly, almost

suspiciously. "Why do you say 'the poor signora'?"

Gaspare stared at him with open surprise.




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