w too near, to seek always to
see clearly.

The Night taught that in Italy, and many things not to be clothed with
words.

Reluctantly at last he lifted his arms from the balcony rail and got up
to leave the restaurant. He dreaded the bustle of the street. As he came
out into it he heard the sharp "Ting! Ting!" of a tram-bell higher up
the hill, and stepped aside to let the tram go by. Idly he looked at it
as it approached. He was still in the vague, the almost sentimental mood
that had come upon him with the night. The tram came up level with him
and slipped slowly by. There was a number of people in it, but on the
last seat one woman sat alone. He saw her clearly as she passed, and
recognized Hermione.

She did not see him. She was looking straight before her.

"Ah-ah! Ah-ah!"

A shower of objurgations in the Neapolitan dialect fell upon Artois from
the box of a carriage coming up the hill. He jumped back and gained
the path. There again he stood still. The sweet and half-melancholy
vagueness had quite left him now. The sight of his friend had swept it
away. Why was she going to Mergellina at that hour? And why did she look
like that?

And he thought of the expression he had seen on her face as the tram
slipped by, an expression surely of excitement; but also a furtive
expression.

Artois had seen Hermione in all her moods, and hers was a very changeful
face. But never before had he seen her look furtive. Nor could he have
conceived it possible that she could look so.

Perhaps the lights had deceived him. And he had only seen her for an
instant.

But why was she going to Mergellina?

Then suddenly it occurred to him that she might be going to Naples, not
to Mergellina at all. He knew no reason why her destination should be
Mergellina. He began to walk down the hill rather quickly. Some hundreds
of yards below the Ristorante della Stella there is a narrow flight of
steps between high walls and houses, which leads eventually down to the
sea at a point where there are usually two or three boats waiting for
hire. Artois, when he started, had no intention of going to sea that
night, but when he reached the steps he paused, and finally turned from
the path and began to descend them.

He had realized that he was really in pursuit, and abruptly relinquished
his purpose. Why should he wish to interfere with an intention of
Hermione's that night?

He would return to Naples by sea.

As he came in sight of the