"If there had been any one, surely the signore would have been rescued at once? Did not every one here love the signore? He was like one of you, wasn't he, one of the Sicilians?"
"Si, signore. Maddalena has been crying about the signore."
"Maddalena?"
"Si, signore, the daughter of Salvatore, the fisherman, who lives at the Casa delle Sirene."
"Oh!"
Artois paused; then he said:
"Were she and her—Salvatore is her father, you say?"
"Her father, signore."
"Were they at the Casa delle Sirene yesterday?"
Artois spoke quietly, almost carelessly, as if merely to say something, but without special intention.