"Because I would choose a man who would be very good to you, who would love you and work for you and always think of you, and never look at another woman. That is how your husband should be."
She looked more wondering.
"Are you like that, then, signore?" she asked. "With the signora?"
Maurice unclasped his hands from his knees, and dropped his feet down from the bench.
"I!" he said, in a voice that had changed. "Oh—yes—I don't know."
He took the oars again and began to row farther out to sea.
"I was talking about you," he said, almost roughly.
"I have never seen your signora," said Maddalena. "What is she like?" Maurice saw Hermione before him in the night, tall, flat, with her long arms, her rugged, intelligent face, her enthusiastic brown eyes.
"Is she pretty?" continued Maddalena. "Is she as young as I am?"
"She is good, Maddalena," Maurice answered.