When they were together she frequently surprised him looking at
her with a sort of penetrating and almost severe scrutiny which
startled her. Once or twice, indeed, she showed that she was startled.
"What's the matter, Gaspare?" she said, one day. "Do I look ill
again?"
For she had remembered his looking at her in the boat.
"No, Signora," he answered, this time, quickly. "You are not looking
ill to-day."
And he moved off, as if anxious to avoid further questioning.
Another time she thought that there was something wrong with her
dress, or her hair, and said so.
"Is there anything wrong with me?" she exclaimed. "What is it?" And
she instinctively glanced down at her gown, and put up her hands to
her head.
And this time he had turned it off with a laugh, and had said:
"Signora, you are like the Signorina! Once she told me I was--I was"--
he shook his head--"I forget the word. But I am sure it was something
that a man could never be. Per dio!"
And then he had gone off into a rambling conversation that had led
Hermione's attention far away from the starting-point of their talk.
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