There came at this moment a knock at his door.
"Avanti!" he said.
The waiter of the hotel came in.
"Signore," he said. "The poor signora is here."
"In the hotel?"
"Si, signore. They have taken the body of the signore to the hospital.
Everybody was in the street to see it pass. And now the poor signora has
come here. She has taken the rooms above you on the little terrace."
"The signora is going to stay here?"
"Si, signore. They say, if the Signor Pretore allows after the inquiry is
over, the funeral will be to-morrow."
Artois looked at the man closely. He was a young fellow, handsome and
gentler-looking than are most Sicilians. Artois wondered what the people
of Marechiaro were saying. He knew how they must be gossiping on such an
occasion. And then it was summer, when they have little or nothing to do,
no forestieri to divide their attentions and to call their ever-ready
suspicions in various directions. The minds of the whole community must
undoubtedly be fixed upon this tragic episode and its cause.
"If the Pretore allows?" Artois said. "But surely there can be no
difficulty? The poor signore fell from the rock and was drowned."
"Si, signore."
The man stood there. Evidently he was anxious to talk.
"The Signor Pretore has gone down to the place now, signore, with the
Cancelliere and the Maresciallo. They have taken Gaspare with them."
"Gaspare!"
Artois thought of this boy, Maurice's companion during Hermione's
absence.
"Si, signore. Gaspare has to show them the exact place where he found the
poor signore."
"I suppose the inquiry will soon be over?"
"Chi lo sa?"
"Well, but what is there to do? Whom can they inquire of? It was a lonely
place, wasn't it? No one was there."
"Chi lo sa?"
"If there had been any one, surely the signore would have been rescued at
once? Did not every one here love the signore? He was like one of you,
wasn't he, one of the Sicilians?"
"Si, signore. Maddalena has been crying about the signore."
"Maddalena?"
"Si, signore, the daughter of Salvatore, the fisherman, who lives at the
Casa delle Sirene."
"Oh!"
Artois paused; then he said: "Were she and her--Salvatore is her father, you say?"
"Her father, signore."
"Were they at the Casa delle Sirene yesterday?"