Artois wondered secretly, and was not sure. He had a theory that all women like to feel their power over men. Few men have not this theory. But there was in Vere something immensely independent, that seemed without sex, and that hinted at a reserve not vestal, but very pure—too pure, perhaps, to desire an empire which is founded certainly upon desire.
And the Marchesino was essentially and completely the young animal; not the heavy, sleek, and self-contented young animal that the northern countries breed, but the frolicsome, playful, fiery young animal that has been many times warmed by the sun.
Hermione felt that Artois’ mood to-night echoed his mood at Frisio’s, and suddenly she thought once more of the visitors’ book and of what he had written there, surely in a moment of almost heated impulse. And as she thought of it she was moved to speak of her thought. She had so many secret reserves from Emile now that this one she could dispense with.
“You remember that night when I met you on the sea?” she said to him.
He looked away from Vere and answered:
“Yes. What about it?”
“When I was at the Scoglio di Frisio I looked again over that wonderful visitors’ book.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. And I saw what you had written.”
Their eyes met. She wondered if by the expression in hers he divined why she had made that expedition, moved by what expectation, by what curiosity. She could tell nothing by his face, which was calm and inscrutable.