Whosoever Shall Offend | Page 9

or suggestion of earnestness, that the Contessa could only
smile.
"And yet you admit that I am not a bad husband," continued Folco.
"Should you accept me, or, say, my exact counterpart, for Aurora, in a
year or two?"
"I doubt whether you have any exact counterpart," Maddalena
answered, checking the sharp denial that rose to her lips.
"Myself, then, just for the sake of argument?"
"What an absurd question! Do you mind tightening the girth for me a
little? My saddle is slipping."
She drew rein, and he was obliged to submit to the check. As he
dismounted he glanced at Aurora's graceful figure, a hundred yards
ahead, and for one instant he drew his eyelids together with a very
strange expression. He knew that the Contessa could not see his face.
Marcello and Aurora had been companions since they were children,
and just now they were talking familiarly of the place, which they had
not seen since the previous year. All sorts of details struck them. Here,
there was more sand than usual; there, a large piece of timber had been
washed ashore in the winter gales; at another place there was a new
sand-drift that had quite buried the scrub on the top of the bank; the
keeper of the San Lorenzo tower had painted his shutters brown,
though they had always been green; here was the spot where Aurora
had tumbled off her pony when she was only twelve years old--so long
ago! And here--they looked at each other and then quickly at the sea,
for it was here that Marcello, in a fit of boyish admiration, had once
suddenly kissed her cheek, telling her that she was perfectly beautiful.
Even now, he blushed when he thought of it, and yet he longed to do it

again, and wondered inwardly what would happen if he did.
As for Aurora, though she looked at the sea for a moment, she seemed
quite self-possessed. It is a strange thing that if a boy and a girl are
brought up in just the same way, by women, and without many
companions, the boy should generally be by far the more shy of the two
when childhood is just past.
"You are very fond of your stepfather, are you not?" asked Aurora, so
suddenly that Marcello started a little and hesitated slightly before he
answered.
"Yes," he said, almost directly, "of course I am! Don't you like him,
too?"
"I used to," answered Aurora in a low voice, "but now his eyes frighten
me--sometimes. For instance, though he is a good way behind, I am
sure he is looking at me now, just in that way."
Marcello turned his head instinctively, and saw that Folco had just
dismounted to tighten the girth of the Contessa's saddle. It was exactly
while Aurora was speaking that he had drawn his eyelids together with
such a strange expression--a mere coincidence, no doubt, but one that
would have startled the girl if she could have suddenly seen his face.
They rode on without waiting for the others, at an even canter over the
sand.
"I never saw anything in Folco's eyes that could frighten anybody,"
Marcello said presently.
"No," answered Aurora. "Very likely not."
Marcello had always called Corbario by his first name, and as he grew
up it seemed more and more natural to do so. Folco was so young, and
he looked even younger than he was.
"It must be your imagination," Marcello said.

"Women," said Aurora, as if she were as near thirty as any young
woman would acknowledge herself, "women have no imagination. That
is why we have so much sense," she added thoughtfully.
Marcello was so completely puzzled by this extraordinary statement
that he could find nothing to say for a few moments. Then he felt that
she had attacked his idol, and that Folco must be defended.
"If you could find a single thing, however small, to bring against him, it
would not be so silly to say that his eyes frighten you."
"There!" laughed Aurora. "You might as well say that because at this
moment there is only that one little cloud near the sun, there is no cloud
at all!"
"How ridiculous!" Marcello expressed his contempt of such girlish
reasoning by putting his rough little horse to a gallop.
"Men always say that," retorted Aurora, with exasperating calm. "I'll
race you to the tower for the first choice of oranges at dessert. They are
not very good this year, you know, and you like them."
"Don't be silly!" Marcello immediately reined his horse back to a walk,
and looked very dignified.
"It is impossible to please you," observed Aurora, slackening her pace
at once.
"It is impossible, if you abuse Folco."
"I am sure I did not mean