A certain amount of rather arbitrary power is placed in
the hands of the local authorities in all great summer resorts, and it
is quite right that it should be so--nor is it as a rule unjustly used.
But Beatrice had acted very differently, very kindly and very
generously. That was because she was naturally so good and gentle,
thought Ruggiero. But the least he had expected was that she would never
again speak to him save to give an order, nor say a kind word, no matter
what service he rendered her, or what danger he ran for her sake. And
now, a moment ago, she had talked with him with more interest and kindly
condescension than she had ever shown before. He refused, and rightly,
to believe that this was because she had needed his help in the matter
of the telegram. She could have called Bastianello, who was in her own
service, and Bastianello would have done just as well. But she had
chosen to employ the man who had so rudely forgotten himself before her
less than twenty-four hours earlier. Why? Ruggiero, little capable, by
natural gifts or by experience, of dealing with such questions, found
himself face to face with a great problem of the human self, and he
knew at once that he could never solve it, try as he might.
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