Part 8 (1/2)
Corbario looked up quickly, as if he had been in a reverie.
”Anything the matter? No. Where did you say you were going?”
”To find Marcello. He has not come in yet.”
”He has gone for a walk, I suppose. He often walks alone on off days. He will be back before luncheon, and you are not going to town till the afternoon.”
”Will you come with me?” Aurora asked, for she was in a good humour with Folco.
He rose at once.
”I'll go with you for a stroll,” he said, ”but I don't think it is of any use to look for Marcello near the house.”
”It can do no harm.”
”And it will do us good to walk a bit.”
They went down the path and through the trees towards the break in the bank.
”The sand was very wet this morning, even inside the bank,” Aurora said. ”I daresay we shall find his footsteps and be able to guess which way he went.”
”Very likely,” Folco answered.
He pushed back his tweed cap a little and pa.s.sed his handkerchief across his smooth brow. Aurora noticed the action, because he did not usually get warm so easily.
”Are you hot?” she asked carelessly.
”A little,” he answered. ”The air is so heavy this morning.”
”Perhaps you are not quite well,” said Aurora. ”You are a little pale.”
Apparently something in her youthfully patronising tone came as near irritating him as anything ever could.
”What does it matter, whether I am hot or not?” he asked, almost impatiently, and again he pa.s.sed his handkerchief over his forehead.
”I did not mean to annoy you,” Aurora answered with uncommon meekness.
They came near the break in the bank, and she looked at the sand on each side of her. She thought it seemed smoother than usual, and that there were not so many little depressions in it, where there had been footsteps on previous days, half obliterated by wind and rain.
”I cannot see where you and I pa.s.sed an hour ago,” she said, in some surprise.
”The wind draws through the gap with tremendous strength,” Folco explained. ”Just before the gale moderated there was a heavy squall with rain.”
”Was there? I did not notice that--but I was on the lee side of the house. The wind must have smoothed the sand, just like a flat-iron!”
”Yes.” Corbario answered indifferently and gazed out to sea.
Aurora left his side and looked about, going to a little distance from the gap, first on one side and then on the other.
”It is as if the wind had done it on purpose!” she cried impatiently.
”It is as smooth as if it had all been swept with a gardener's broom.”