had sometimes felt frustrated by Orientals.
And he knew an anger of the brain as well as an anger of the heart. But
this anger roused him, and he resolved to do something from which till
now he had instinctively shrunk, strong-willed man though he was.
If Gaspare would not help him he would act for himself. Possibly the
suspicion, the fear that beset him was groundless. He had put it
away from him more than once, had said that it was absurd, that his
profession of an imaginative writer rendered him, perhaps, more liable
to strange fancies than were other men, that it encouraged him to
seek instinctively for drama, and that what a man instinctively and
perpetually seeks he will often imagine that he has found. Now he would
try to prove what was the truth.

He had written to Hermione saying that he would be glad to dine with her
on any evening that suited the Marchesino, that he had no engagements.
Why she wished him to meet the Marchesino he did not know. No doubt
she had some woman's reason. The one she gave was hardly enough, and
he divined another beneath it. Certainly he did not love Doro on the
island, but perhaps it was as well that they should meet there once, and
get over their little antagonism, an antagonism that Artois thought of
as almost childish. Life was not long enough for quarrels with boys like
Doro. Artois had refused Hermione's invitation on the sea abruptly. He
had felt irritated for the moment, because he had for the moment been
unusually expansive, and her announcement that Doro was to be there had
fallen upon him like a cold douche. And then he had been nervous, highly
strung from overwork. Now he was calm, and could look at things as
they were. And if he noticed anything leading him to suppose that the
Marchesino was likely to try to abuse Hermione's hospitality he meant
to have it out with him. He would speak plainly and explain the English
point of view. Doro would no doubt attack him on the ground of his
interview with Maria Fortunata. He did not care. Somehow his present
preoccupation with Hermione's fate, increased by the visit of Gaspare,
rendered his irritation against the Marchesino less keen than it had
been. But he thought he would probably visit the island to-night--after
another visit which he intended to pay. He could not start at once. He
must give Gaspare time to take the boat and row off. For his first visit
was to Mergellina.

After waiting an hour he started on foot, keeping al