“He’s like that, Gaspare,” she said.
“Vere!” said her mother.
Then she added to Gaspare:
“The Marchese is a friend of Don Emilio’s. Ah! and here is a letter from Don Emilio.”
It was lying beside the Marchese’s card with some other letters. Hermione opened it first, and read that Artois had been unexpectedly called away to Paris on business, but intended to return to Naples as soon as possible, and to spend the whole summer on the Bay.
“I feel specially that this summer I should like to be near you,” he wrote. “I hope you wish it.”
At the end of the letter there was an allusion to the Marchesino, “that gay and admirably characteristic Neapolitan product, the Toledo incarnate.”
There was not a word of Vere.
Hermione read the letter aloud to Vere, who was standing beside her, evidently hoping to hear it. When she had finished, Vere said:
“I am glad Monsieur Emile will be here all the summer.”