I was really so much in
the confidence of that astonishing person. "_Vous devez bien regretter
son depart pour Paris_," she cooed, looking with affected bashfulness at
her fan. . . . How I got out of the room I really don't know. There was
also a staircase. I did not fall down it head first--that much I am
certain of; and I also remember that I wandered for a long time about the
seashore and went home very late, by the way of the Prado, giving in
passing a fearful glance at the Villa. It showed not a gleam of light
through the thin foliage of its trees.

I spent the next day with Dominic on board the little craft watching the
shipwrights at work on her deck. From the way they went about their
business those men must have been perfectly sane; and I felt greatly
refreshed by my company during the day. Dominic, too, devoted himself to
his business, but his taciturnity was sardonic. Then I dropped in at the
cafe and Madame Leonore's loud "Eh, Signorino, here you are at last!"
pleased me by its resonant friendliness. But I found the sparkle of her
black eyes as she sat down for a moment opposite me while I was having my
drink rather difficult to bear. That man and that woman seemed to know
something. What did they know? At parting she pressed my hand
significantly. What did she mean? But I didn't feel offended by these
manifestations. The souls within these people's breasts were not
volatile in the manner of slightly scented and inflated bladders.
Neither had they the impervious skins which seem the rule in the fine
world that wants only to get on. Somehow they had sensed that there was
something wrong; and whatever impression they might have formed for
themselves I had the certitude that it would not be for them a matter of
grins at my expense.

That day on returning home I found Therese looking out for me, a very
unusual occurrence of late. She handed me a card bearing the name of the
Marquis de Villarel.

"How did you come by this?" I asked. She turned on at once the tap of
her volubility and I was not surprised to learn that the grandee had not
done such an extraordinary thing as to call upon me in person. A young
gentleman had brought it. Such a nice young gentleman, she interjected
with her piously ghoulish expression. He was not very tall. He had a
very smooth complexion (that woman was incorrigible) and a nice, tiny
black moustache. Therese was sure that he must have been an officer _en
las