"Hermione"—he stared at the open door—"you think we should have gone to the fair if——"
"No, no, I never thought so. I only wondered. It all seemed so strange."
"It is too horrible!" Maurice said, with heavy emphasis. "And Artois—no rooms ready for him! What can he have thought?"
"As I did, that there had been a mistake. What does it matter now? Just at the moment I was dreadfully—oh, dreadfully disappointed. I saw Gaspare at the fair. And you saw me, Gaspare?"
"Si, signora. I ran all the way to the station, but the train had gone."
"But I didn't see you, Maurice. Where were you?"
Gaspare opened his lips to speak, but Maurice did not give him time.
"I was there, too, in the fair."
"But of course you weren't looking at the train?"
"Of course not. And when Gaspare told me, it was too late to do anything. We couldn't get back in time, and the donkeys were tired, and so——"