“At least, I hope you are happy, Ruffo,” she added.
“Si, Signora.”
He looked at her. She was not sure which he meant, whether his assent was to her hope or to the fact of his happiness. She wondered which it was.
“Young people ought to be happy,” she said.
“Ought they, Signora?”
“You like your life, don’t you? You like the sea?”
“Si, Signora. I could not live away from the sea. If I could not see the sea every day I don’t know what I should do.”
“I love it, too.”
“The Signorina loves the sea.”
He had ignored her love for it and seized on Vere’s. She thought that this was very characteristic of his youth.