"Excuse me just for an instant!" he said. "I want to speak to Gaspare."
He saw now that Gaspare was taking into the cottage the provisions that
had been carried up by the donkey from Marechiaro.
"I--I told him to do something for me in the village," he added, "and I
want just to know--"
He looked at them, almost defiantly, as if he challenged them not to
believe what he had said. Then, without finishing his sentence, he went
quickly into the cottage.
"You have chosen your garden well," Artois said to Hermione directly they
were alone. "No other sea has ever given to me such an impression of
tenderness and magical space as this; no other sea has surely ever had a
horizon-line so distant from those who look as this."
He went on talking about the beauty, leading her with him. He feared lest
she might begin to speak about her husband.
Meanwhile, Maurice had reached the mountain-side behind the house and was
waiting there for Gaspare. He heard the boy's voice in the kitchen
speaking to Lucrezia, angrily it seemed by the sound. Then the voice
ceased and Gaspare appeared for an instant at the kitchen door, making
violent motions with his arms towards the mountain. He disappeared. What
did he want? What did he mean? The gestures had been imperative. Maurice
looked round. A little way up the mountain there was a large, closed
building, like a barn, built of stones. It belonged to a contadino, but
Maurice had never seen it open, or seen any one going to or coming from
it. As he stared at it an idea occurred to him. Perhaps Gaspare meant him
to go and wait there, behind the barn, so that Lucrezia should not see or
hear their colloquy. He resolved to do this, and went swiftly up the
hill-side. When he was in the shadow of the building he waited. He did
not know what was the matter, what Gaspare wanted, but he realized that
something had occurred which had stirred the boy to the depths. This
something must have occurred while he was at Marechiaro. Before he had
time mentally to make a list of possible events in Marechiaro, Maurice
heard light feet running swiftly up the mountain, and Gaspare came round
the corner, still with the look of tragedy, a wild, almost terrible look
in his eyes.
"Signorino," he began at once, in a low voice that was full of the
pressure of an intense excitement. "Tell me! Where were you last night
when we were making the fireworks go off?"