"Well, then, why should Gaspare look like that?"
"Oh," said Artois, who saw the discomfort of his host, "perhaps there is
some family feud that you know nothing of. When I was in Sicily I found
the people singularly subtle. They can gossip terribly, but they can keep
a secret when they choose. If I had won the real friendship of a
Sicilian, I would rather trust him with my secret than a man of any other
race. They are not only loyal--that is not enough--but they are also very
intelligent."
"Yes, they are both--the good ones," said Hermione. "I would trust
Gaspare through thick and thin. If they were only as stanch in love as
they can be in friendship!"
Gaspare came out again with another course. The ugly expression had gone
from his face, but he still looked unusually grave.
"Ah, when the senses are roused they are changed beings," Artois said.
"They hate and resent governance from outside, but their blood governs
them."
"Our blood governs us when the time comes--do you remember?"
Hermione had said the words before she remembered the circumstances in
which they had been spoken and of whom they were said. Directly she had
uttered them she remembered.
"What was that?" Maurice asked, before Artois could reply.
He had seen a suddenly conscious look in Hermione's face, and instantly
he was aware of a feeling of jealousy within him.
"What was that?" he repeated, looking quickly from one to the other.
"Something I remember saying to your wife," Artois answered. "We were
talking about human nature--a small subject, monsieur, isn't it?--and I
think I expressed the view of a fatalist. At any rate, I did say
that--that our blood governs us when the time comes."
"The time?" Maurice asked.
His feeling of jealousy died away, and was replaced by a keen personal
interest unmingled with suspicions of another.
"Well, I confess it sometimes seems to me as if, when a certain hour
strikes, a certain deed must be committed by a certain man or woman. It
is perhaps their hour of madness. They may repent it to the day of their
death. But can they in that hour avoid that deed? Sometimes, when I
witness the tragic scenes that occur abruptly, unexpectedly, in the
comedy of life, I am moved to wonder."
"Then you should be very forgiving, Emile," Hermione said.
"And you?" he asked. "Are you, or would you be, forgiving?"