He felt as if a drama had been played out there and the dénouement had been happy.
Hermione came back at this moment.
"Poor Lucrezia!" she said. "She's plucky, but Sebastiano is making her suffer horribly."
"Here!" said Artois, almost involuntarily.
"It does seem almost impossible, I know."
She sat down again near him and smiled at her husband.
"You are coming back to health, Emile. And Maurice and I—well, we are in our garden. It seems wrong, terribly wrong, that any one should suffer here. But Lucrezia loves like a Sicilian. What violence there is in these people!"
"England must not judge them."
He looked at Maurice.
"What's that?" asked Hermione. "Something you two were talking about when I was in the kitchen?"