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But Peppina entered with a jug of hot water, and assured us that there were no more bells than usual; so we lay drowsily in our comfortable little beds, gazing at the frescoes on the ceiling.
Even the servants say she has the evil eye. But, if she has, it is too late now. Peppina has looked upon us all." "Perhaps that old Eastern was right." Artois could not help saying it. "Perhaps all that is to be is ordained long beforehand. Do you think that, Hermione?" "I have sometimes thought it, when I have been depressed. I have sometimes said to myself, 'E il destino!"
Beppo sent a stinging reproof in verse to Peppina by the new gardener, and the Little Genius read it to us, to show the poetic instinct of the discarded lover, and how well he had selected his rebuke from the store of popular verses known to gondoliers and fishermen of Venice: "No te fidar de l' albaro che piega, Ne de la dona quando la te giura.
What has he done?" Ruffo looked at her, and she saw that the simple expression had gone out of his eyes. "Signora, I thought perhaps you knew." "I? But I have never seen your step-father." "No, Signora. But but you have that girl here in your house." "What girl?" Suddenly, almost while she was speaking, Hermione understood. "Peppina!" she said. "It was your Patrigno who wounded Peppina?"
She could only pretend to ignore that it had ever been made. And this she did. But now that she knew of it she felt very acutely the difference it had made in Vere. That difference was owing to her own impulsive action. And Emile knew the whole truth. She understood now what he had been going to say about Peppina and Vere when they had talked about the books. He did condemn her in his heart.
The nails driven through the green lemon like nails driven through a cross Peppina the cross cut on Peppina's cheek. That broad-shouldered man who had come in at the door had cut that cross on Peppina's cheek. Was it true that Peppina had the evil eye? Had it been a fatal day for the Casa del Mare when she had been allowed to cross its threshold?
Artois was silent, waiting for her to say more, to ask questions. "The only thing is Vere, Emile," she said. "Vere?" "Yes. You know how friendly she is with the servants. I like her to be. But of course till now they have been all right so far as I know." "You do well to add that proviso." "Peppina would not wait on us. She would be in the kitchen. Am I justified in taking her?
But that startled him. He knew that Vere had never read his books. He thought her far too young to read them. Till lately he had almost a contempt for those who write with one eye on "la jeune fille." Now he could conceive writing with a new pleasure something that Vere might read. But those books of his! Why had Hermione suddenly given that permission? He remembered Peppina.
On Thursday he went over to the island with mingled eagerness and reluctance. That little home in the sea, washed by blue waters, rooted by blue skies, sun-kissed and star-kissed by day and night, drew and repelled him. There was the graciousness of youth there, of youth and promise; but there was tragedy there, too, in the heart of Hermione, and in Peppina, typified by the cross upon her cheek.
"There is not a girl in Naples as beautiful as Peppina. Mother of " But the game was too loathsome with such a player. "Beautiful! Macche!" He laughed, made a gesture of pulling out a knife and smashing his face with it. "Beautiful! Per Dio!" The coquetry, the cunning, dropped out of the long, pale face. "The Signore knows?" "Ma si! All Naples knows." The old woman's face became terrible.
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