I am glad you think that. Come
and sit down on the bench."
He drew her down beside him. He felt that he was with a child whom he
must comfort. Gaspare stood always looking down over the rail of the
terrace to the sea.
"Vere!"
"Yes, Monsieur Emile."
"You mother is not ill as you thought--feared. But--to-day--she has
had, she must have had, a great shock."
"But at Mergellina?"
"Only that could account for what you have just told me."
"But I don't understand. She only went to Mergellina."
"Did you see her before she went there?"
"Yes."
"Was she as usual?"
"I don't think she was. I think Madre has been changing nearly all
this summer. That is why I am so afraid. You know she has been
changing."
He was silent. The difficulty of the situation was great. He did not
know how to resolve it.
"You have seen the change, Monsieur Emile!"
He did not deny it. He did not know what to do or say. For of that
change, although perhaps now he partly understood it, he could never
speak to Vere or to any one.
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