“I was saying that you are nearly a woman now.”
Vere seemed extraordinarily thin and young as she sat there in her dripping bathing-dress, with her small, bare feet distilling drops into the bottom of the boat, and her two hands, looking drowned, holding lightly to the wood on each side of her. Even Gaspare, as he spoke, was struck by this, and by the intensely youthful expression in the eyes that now regarded him curiously.
“Really, Gaspare?”
Vere asked the question quite seriously.
“Si, Signorina.”
“A woman!”
She looked down, as if considering herself. Her wet face had become thoughtful, and for a moment she said nothing.
“And what did mother say?” she asked, looking up again. “But I know. I am sure she laughed at you.”
Gaspare looked rather offended. His expressive face, which always showed what he was feeling, became almost stern, and he began to row faster than before.
“Why should the Signora laugh? Am I an imbecile, Signorina?”