Gaspare

“ Yes, of course. But there is no sea, Gaspare, there are no mountains."
"Are there many soldiers? Are there beautiful women?"
"Oh, there are plenty of soldiers and women."
"I should like always to live in London," repeated Gaspare, firmly.
"Well—perhaps you will. But—remember—we are all to be happy at the fair of San Felice."
"Si, signore. But be careful, or Salvatore will make you buy him a donkey. He had a wine-shop once, long ago, in Marechiaro, and the wine—Per Dio, it was always vino battezzato!" ”

“ All the English are simpatici. Come this way, signore! Gaspare knows me. Gaspare knows that I am not birbante." [Pg 296]
"Signorino! Signorino! Look at this clock! It plays the 'Tre Colori.' It is worth twenty-five lire, but I will make a special price for you because you love Sicily and are like a Siciliano. Gaspare will tell you——"
But Gaspare elbowed away his acquaintances roughly.
"Let my padrone alone. He is not here to buy. He is only here to see the fair. Come on, signorino! Do not answer them. Do not take any notice. You must not buy anything or you will be cheated. ”

“ And with each toast the wine went down till Maurice called a halt.
"I am a real Sicilian," he said. "But if I drink any more I shall be under the table. Get out the cards, Salvatore. Sette e mezzo, and I'll put down the stakes. No one to go above twenty-five centesimi, with fifty for the doubling. Gaspare's sure to win. He always does. And I've just one cigar apiece. There's no wind. Bring out the candles and let's play out here."
Gaspare ran for the candles while Salvatore got the cards, well-thumbed and dirty. Maddalena's long eyes were dancing. ”

“ The story was of the fisherman and the Genie who was confined in a casket, and soon Gaspare was entirely absorbed by it. He kept his enormous brown eyes fixed upon Maurice's face, and moved his lips, silently forming, after him, the words of the tale. When it was finished he said:
"I should not like to be kept shut up like that, signore. If I could not be free I would kill myself. I will always be free." ”

“ But Gaspare, always a little ruthless with women, soon tired of such vanities.
"Avanti! Avanti!" he shouted. "Dio mio! Le donne sono pazze! Andiamo! Andiamo!"
He hustled Maddalena, who yielded, blushing and laughing, to his importunities, and at last they were really off again, and drowned in a sea of odor as they passed some buildings where lemons were being packed to be shipped away from Sicily. This smell seemed to Maurice to be the very breath of the island. ”

“ She could go to the village sometimes then—she could go to Marechiaro to gossip with the neighbors."
"Has Maddalena broken her legs—Madonna!" burst forth Gaspare.
"Come along, Gaspare!" said Maurice, hastily.
He bade good-bye to the fisherman and his daughter, and set off with Gaspare through the trees.
"Be nice to Salvatore," said Maurice, as they went down towards the rocky wall.
"But he wants to make you give him a donkey, signorino. You do not know him. When he is with you at the fair he will—"
"Never mind. I say, Gaspare, I want—I want that day at the fair to be a real festa. ”

“ I hardly know Maddalena."
Gaspare laughed; not rudely, but as a boy laughs who is sure he knows the world from the outer shell to inner kernel.
"Oh, signore, why did you go down to the sea instead of coming to the festa?"
Maurice did not answer at once. He was asking himself Gaspare's question. Why had he gone to the Sirens' Isle? Gaspare continued:
"May I say what I think, signore? You know I am Sicilian, and I know the Sicilians."
"What is it?"
"Strangers should be careful what they do in my country."
"Madonna! You call me a stranger?" ”

“ To dance the tarantella almost intoxicated him, even when he only danced it in the village among the contadini, but to-day the admiring eyes of his padrona were upon him. He knew how she loved the tarantella. He knew, too, that she wanted the padrone, her husband, to love it as she did. Gaspare was very shrewd to read a woman's thoughts so long as her love ran in them. Though but eighteen, he was a man in certain knowledge. ”

“ His instinct had told him upon the terrace that the padrone was there. Uneducated people have often marvellously retentive memories for the things of every-day life. Gaspare remembered the padrone's question about the little light beside the sea, his answer to it, the way in which the padrone had looked towards the trees when, in the dawn, they stood upon the summit of the hill and he pointed out the caves where they were going to sleep. He remembered, too, from what direction the padrone came towards the caffè when the sun was up—and he knew. ”

“ Then Gaspare said:
"Now that the signora has come back we shall not go any more to the Casa delle Sirene, shall we?"
"No, I don't suppose we shall go any more."
"It is better like that, signorino. It is much better that we do not go."
Maurice said nothing.
"We have been there too often," added Gaspare. "I am glad the signora has come back. I am sorry she ever went away."
"It was not our fault that she went," Maurice said, in a hard voice like that of a man trying to justify something, to defend himself against some accusation. "We did not want the signora to go." [Pg 324]
"No, signore." ”

“ But here on the island—why, what could happen to her here? Come, Gaspare, tell me what it is you are thinking of. You haven’t told me yet. I knew directly you came in that you had something you wanted to say. What is it?”
“I know it is not my business,” he said. “And I should never speak to the Signorina, but—”
“Well, Gaspare?”
“Signora, all sorts of people come here to the island—men from Naples. We do not know them. We cannot tell who they are. And they can all see the Signorina. And they can even talk to her.”
“The fishermen, you mean?”
“Any one who comes in a boat.” ”

“ A carriage had just rattled up from the harbor of Santa Lucia only a few yards away.
“Ecco!” he exclaimed. “Ecco! But—but who is with them?”
“Only Gaspare,” replied Artois.
“Gaspare! That servant who came to the Guiseppone? Oh, no doubt he has rowed the ladies over and will return to the boat?”
“No, I think not. I think the Signora will bring him to the Carmine.”
“Why?” said the Marchesino, sharply.
“Why not? He is a strong fellow, and might be useful in a crowd.”
“Are we not strong? Are we not useful?”
“My dear Doro, what’s the matter?” ”

“ And there were shooting-galleries and puppet-shows and dancing-rooms, and at night, when the darkness came, there were giuochi di fuoco which lit up the whole sky, till you could see Etna quite plainly.
"E' veramente un paradiso!" concluded Gaspare. [Pg 246]
"A paradise!" echoed Maurice. "A paradise! I say, Gaspare, why can't we always live in paradise? Why can't life be one long festa?"
"Non lo so, signore. And the signora? Do you think she will be here for the fair?" ”

“ He had lived and felt about him the fingers of the sun touching him like a lover. And he had chattered idly to Gaspare about Sicilian things, always Sicilian things; about the fairs and the festivals, Capo d'Anno and Carnevale, martedì grasso with its Tavulata, the solemn family banquet at which all the relations assemble and eat in company, the feasts of the different saints, the peasant marriages and baptisms, the superstitions—Gaspare did not call them so—that are alive in Sicily, and that will surely [Pg 186] live till Sicily is no more ”

“ Are you afraid of sleeping at dawn in a cave upon the sands?"
"What is it all?" asked Maurice. "Gaspare, I understand you best."
"I know," said Gaspare, joyously. "It's the fish [Pg 101] ing. Nito has sent. I told him to. Is it Nito, Sebastiano?"
Sebastiano nodded. Gaspare turned eagerly to Maurice.
"Oh, signore, you must come, you will come!"
"Where? In a boat?"
"No. We go down to the shore, to Isola Bella. We take food, wine, red wine, and a net. Between twenty-two and twenty-three o'clock is the time to begin. And the sea must be calm. Is the sea calm to-day, Sebastiano?" ”

“ The Sicilian servant, if he cares for his padrone, feels as if he had a proprietor's interest in him. He belongs to his padrone and his padrone belongs to him. He will allow nobody to interfere with his possession. He is intensely jealous of any one who seeks to disturb the intimacy between his padrone and himself, or to enter into his padrone's life without frankly letting him know it and the reason for it. The departure of Hermione had given an additional impetus to Gaspare's always lively sense of proprietorship in Maurice. ”

“ Was this owing to Gaspare’s rather rough rebuke upon the cliff before Artois and Vere? Or had Gaspare emphasized that by further directions when alone with Ruffo? She tried deftly to find out, but the boy baffled her. But perhaps he was delicate about money, unlike Neapolitans, and feared that if he talked too much of his mother the lady of the island would think he was “making misery,” was hoping for another twenty francs. As to his Patrigno, the fact that Peppina was living on the island made that subject rather a difficult one. ”

“ When they came out to the pavement the Marchesino cast a searching glance at the Sicilian, who was taking the cloaks, while the two carriages which had been summoned by the hotel porter were rattling up from the opposite side of the way. Gaspare had saluted him, but did not look at him again. When Hermione and Vere were in the first carriage, Gaspare sprang on to the box as a matter of course. The Marchesino went to tell the coachman which way to drive to the Carmine. When he had finished he looked at Gaspare and said:
“There will be a big crowd. ”

“ It is terrible to realize that one is at a permanent disadvantage, which time can only increase. And just then Artois felt that there was nothing, that there could never be anything, to compensate any human being for the loss of youth.
He began to wonder about the people of the island. The Marchesino had spoken with a strange assurance. He had dared to say:
“You love the Signorina. I know it; the Signora knows it; Gaspare—he knows it. ”

“ He had little doubt of his capacity to out-manoeuvre Emilio and the Signora. And if the Signorina were favorable to him, he believed that he might even get the better of Gaspare, in whom he divined a watchful hostility. But would the Signorina help him? He could not tell. How can one ever tell what a girl will do at a given moment?
With a jerk the carriage drew up beneath the walls of the prison that frowns upon the Piazza di Masaniello, and the Marchesino roused himself to the battle and sprang out. ”

“ Gaspar’s secret was a secret no longer, except as regarded his way of acquiring the hoards of treasure, of which an exaggerated account spread through all the hamlet before the morning.
Having thanked, rewarded, and dismissed the workmen, Isa sat for hours watching by her brother, and listening to a confession from his lips which filled her [275] heart with mingled grief, shame, thankfulness, and hope.
There are some men whom judgments only harden—a thunderbolt might shatter, but it never would melt them—Gaspar’s nature resembled not such. ”

“ Throw, Gaspar—and may the devil so direct, that you throw less!" He took up his poniard with a very decided air, while Gaspar in turn quietly rattled the box.
"Five and five—ten!" said he with cool triumph, looking around him; "one has saved him."
"Stay! let us look at them," cried Cifuentes, in a voice almost amounting to a shriek. "Ten, indeed! Par Diez! he has escaped me just now. But a time may yet come—"
"Silence!" roared Gaspar. "Señor," said he, advancing towards Ronald, who now began to breathe more freely, "I have saved your life,—for this time at least. ”

“ Gaspar wished to jump off and let the great creature go; but it was so high, and went on so steadily, that he could not get a chance. At last they passed through a gate in a high wall, which he thought must be the Chinese Wall, and a pagoda in the distance soon convinced him that he was right.
“I shall at least see peaked shoes and mandarins, and that is some satisfaction,” he thought, and rode on, looking about him with great curiosity, until he came to a palace all gilding and porcelain. Here the horse came to a stand, as if he had been wound up to go so far and no farther. ”

“ He took the run and gave the jump, but the little man shot up high into the air, and he might as well have tried to jump over the moon.
“It is a most singular thing!” said Gaspar to himself; “a little gray man, not much larger than I am, and yet he seems to be every where at once, like sheet lightning. There is no getting by him, and all the time he looks at me with those bright eyes and that quiet smile, as if he were really very much amused. ”

“ One day when the sun was fighting hard to make a pathway of light in front of Gaspard’s hut, Pierre rounded a corner of the cliff and fronted Gaspard as he sat there, his eyes idling gloomily with the sea. They said little to each other—in new lands hospitality has not need of speech. When Gaspard and Pierre looked each other in the eyes they knew that one word between them was as a hundred with other men. The heart knows its confessor, and the confessor knows the shadowed eye that broods upon some ghostly secret ”

“ What a tumbling, a flying, a groaning, a screaming! Never before were such confusion and fear in an assembly of bobbing mandarins. But Gaspar felt his breast swell with courage. Throwing off his long robes, he sprang upon the lion, and struggled fiercely with him; but the powerful creature would soon have laid him low if he had not suddenly remembered the dagger, sharpened in his conflict with the little gray man. Drawing it from the belt in which he always wore it, beneath his embroidered robe, he plunged it into the lion's throat, and victory was won. ”