She dived. She came up.
“Ma veramente Signorina!”
She dived again.
Gaspare waited. He was standing up in the boat with the oars in his hands, ready to make a dash at his Padroncina directly she reappeared, but she was wily, and came up behind the boat with a shrill cry that startled him. He looked round reproachfully over his shoulder.
“Signorina,” he said, turning the boat round, “you are like a wicked baby to-day.”
“What is it, Gaspare?” she asked, this time letting him come towards her.
“I say that you are like a wicked baby. And only the other day I was saying to the Signora—”
“What were you saying?”
She swam to the boat and got in.
“What?” she repeated, sitting down on the gunwale, while he began to row towards the islet.