A Spirit in Prison | Page 8

little sound most characteristically
Neapolitan--a sound that seemed lightly condemnatory of himself. This
done, he stood still before Vere, looking at the cigarettes and at the
dolce.
"I've brought these for you," she said.

"Grazie, Signorina."
He did not hold out his hand, but his eyes, now devoted entirely to the
cigarettes, began to shine with pleasure. Vere did not give him the
presents at once. She had something to explain first.
"We mustn't wake them," she said, pointing towards the boat in which
the men were sleeping. "Come a little way with me."
She retreated a few steps from the sea, followed closely by the eager
boy.
"We sha'n't disturb them now," she said, stopping. "Do you know why
I've brought you these?"
She stretched out her hands, with the dolce and the cigarettes.
The boy threw his chin up again and half shut his eyes.
"No, Signorina."
"Because you did what I told you."
She spoke rather with the air of a little queen.
"I don't understand."
"Didn't you hear me call out to you from up there?"--she pointed to the
cliff above their heads--"when you were sitting in the boat? I called to
you to go in after the men."
"Why?"
"Why! Because I thought you were a lazy boy."
He laughed. All his brown face gave itself up to laughter--eyes, teeth,
lips, cheeks, chin. His whole body seemed to be laughing. The idea of
his being lazy seemed to delight his whole spirit.

"You would have been lazy if you hadn't done what I told you," said
Vere, emphatically, forcing her words through his merriment with
determination. "You know you would."
"I never heard you call, Signorina."
"You didn't?"
He shook his head several times, bent down, dipped his fingers in the
sea, put them to his lips: "I say it."
"Really?"
There was a note of disappointment in her voice. She felt dethroned.
"But then, you haven't earned these," she said, looking at him almost
with rebuke, "if you went in of your own accord."
"I go in because it is my mestiere, Signorina," the boy said, simply. "I
go in by force."
He looked at her and then again at the cigarettes. His expression said,
"Can you refuse me?" There was a quite definite and conscious attempt
to cajole her to generosity in his eyes, and in the pose he assumed. Vere
saw it, and knew that if there had been a mirror within reach at that
moment the boy would have been looking into it, frankly admiring
himself.
In Italy the narcissus blooms at all seasons of the year.
She was charmed by the boy, for he did his luring well, and she was
susceptible to all that was naturally picturesque. But a gay little spirit of
resistance sprang up like a flame and danced within her.
She let her hands fall to her sides.
"But you like going in?"
"Signorina?"

"You enjoy diving?"
He shrugged his shoulders, and again used what seemed with him a
favorite expression.
"Signorina, I must enjoy it, by force."
"You do it wonderfully. Do you know that? You do it better than the
men."
Again the conscious look came into the boy's face and body, as if his
soul were faintly swaggering.
"There is no one in the Bay who can dive better than I can," he
answered. "Giovannino thinks he can. Well, let him think so. He would
not dare to make a bet with me."
"He would lose it if he did," said Vere. "I'm sure he would. Just now
you were under water nearly a minute by my mother's watch."
"Where is the Signora?" said the boy, looking round.
"Why d'you ask?"
"Why--I can stay under longer than that."
"Now, look here!" said the girl, eagerly. "Never mind Madre! Go down
once for me, won't you? Go down once for me, and you shall have the
dolce and two packets of cigarettes."
"I don't want the dolce, Signorina; a dolce is for women," he said, with
the complete bluntness characteristic of Southern Italians and of
Sicilians.
"The cigarettes, then."
"Va bene. But the water is too shallow here."
"We'll take my boat."

She pointed to a small boat, white with a green line, that was moored
close to them.
"Va bene," said the boy again.
He rolled his white trousers up above his knees, stripped off his blue
jersey, leaving the thin vest that was beneath it, folded the jersey neatly
and laid it on the stones, tightened his trousers at the back, then caught
hold of the rope by which Vere's boat was moored to the shore and
pulled the boat in.
Very carefully he helped Vere into it.
"I know a good place," he said, "where you can see right down to the
bottom."
Taking the