“You have lost her?”
“Si.”
There was a dulness of fatalism in his voice.
Artois did not reproach him.
“Did you lose them when the balloon went up?” he asked.
“Macche! It was not the balloon!” Gaspare said, fiercely.
“What was it?”
Artois felt suddenly that Gaspare had some perfect excuse for his inattention.
“Some one spoke to me. When I—when I had finished the Signorina and that Signore were gone.”
“Some one spoke to you. Who was it?”