Part 37 (1/2)
”Well, here in Sicily, when a man goes to see a girl it is because he wants to love her.”
”In England it is different, Gaspare. In England men and women can be friends. Why not?”
”You want just to be a friend of Maddalena?”
”Of course. I like to talk to the people. I want to understand them. Why shouldn't I be friends with Maddalena as--as I am with Lucrezia?”
”Oh, Lucrezia is your servant.”
”It's all the same.”
”But perhaps Maddalena doesn't know. We are Sicilians here, signore.”
”What do you mean? That Maddalena might--nonsense, Gaspare!”
There was a sound as of sudden pleasure, even sudden triumph, in his voice.
”Are you sure you understand our girls, signore?”
”If Maddalena does like me there's no harm in it. She knows who I am now.
She knows I--she knows there is the signora.”
”Si, signore. There is the signora. She is in Africa, but she is coming back.”
”Of course!”
”When the sick signore gets well?”
Maurice said nothing. He felt sure Gaspare was wondering again, wondering that Hermione was in Africa.
”I cannot understand how it is in England,” continued the boy. ”Here it is all quite different.”
Again jealousy stirred in Maurice and a sensation almost of shame. For a moment he felt like a Sicilian husband at whom his neighbors point the two fingers of scorn, and he said something in his wrath which was unworthy.
”You see how it is,” he said. ”If the signora can go to Africa to see her friend, I can come down here to see mine. That is how it is with the English.”
He did not even try to keep the jealousy out of his voice, his manner.
Gaspare leaped to it.
”You did not like the signora to go to Africa!”
”Oh, she will come back. It's all right,” Maurice answered, hastily.
”But, while she is there, it would be absurd if I might not speak to any one.”
Gaspare's burden of doubt, perhaps laid on his young shoulders by his loyalty to his padrona, was evidently lightened.
”I see, signore,” he said. ”You can each have a friend. But have you explained to Maddalena?”
”If you think it necessary, I will explain.”