There were boys bathing still from the breakwater of the rocks. And
still they were shouting. She stood by the wall and watched them,
resting her hands on the stone.
How hot the stone was! Gaspare had been right. It was going to be a
glorious day, one of the tremendous days of summer.
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?
Vere had said something--what was it?--about Peppina and her cross. Oh
yes! That Peppina's cross seemed like a sign, a warning come into the
house on the island, that it seemed to say, "There is a cross to be
borne by some one here, by one of us!"
And the fishermen's sign of the cross under the light of San
Francesco?
Surely there had been many warnings in her life.
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