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I am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side. 'You mean ? 'I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have observed that. 'Only too well, said Aribert. 'And you are aware of the cause? Aribert nodded an affirmative. 'But cannot remove it? 'No, said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella's finger.
"Yes," answered Marietta, "I know it." "So careless!" repeated Nella. "Nothing has any value for you! Some day you will forget your face in the mirror and go away without it, and then they will say it is Nella's fault!" Marietta laughed lightly, for she was happy. It was clear that everything was to end well, though it might be long before her father would consent to let her marry Zorzi.
When all was told, she drew a long breath, and wished that she could be alone to think over what she had heard; but Nella's imagination was roused, and she was prepared to discuss the affair all the morning. The details of it had become more and more numerous and circumstantial, as the men with the bandaged heads recalled what they had seen and heard.
The beauty of even the most beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella's this afternoon was at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious, and yet ineffably sweet, she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance of life. 'I have forgotten, he said. 'You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you? You gave me to understand that it was something terribly important.
He never for an instant questioned her right to possess her own friends; he had always left her in the most amazing liberty, relying on her inherited good sense to keep her out of mischief; but, quite apart from the wink, he was struck by Nella's attitude towards Mr Dimmock, an attitude in which an amiable scorn was blended with an evident desire to propitiate and please.
'He dined with us last night, said Racksole 'on Nella's invitation, he added maliciously; 'but to-day we have seen nothing of him. I know, however, that he has engaged the State apartments, and also a suite adjoining the State apartments No. 55. That is so, isn't it, Nella? 'Yes, Papa, she said, having first demurely examined a ledger.
Most of this was simple bluff on Nella's part, and she trembled lest Miss Spencer should perceive that it was simple bluff. Happily for her, Miss Spencer belonged to that order of women who have every sort of courage except physical courage. Miss Spencer could have withstood successfully any moral trial, but persuade her that her skin was in danger, and she would succumb.
And besides, she was to marry Contarini, and she was not of the kind that would promise to marry one man and yet encourage love in another. It was well, thought Zorzi, that she had never suspected the truth. When Marietta reached her room again she listened patiently to Nella's scolding and warning, for she did not hear a word the good woman said to her.
Her mistress's disbelief in the blue noses and fiery tails was disconcerting, and had a chilling effect on Nella's talkative mood. The gondolier had crossed the bridge, to tell his story to Pasquale, whose view of the case seemed to differ from Nella's. He listened with approving interest, but without comment, until the gondolier had finished. "I could tell you many such stories," he said.
These few words, in Nella's large scrawling hand, filled one side of the paper. At the bottom was a P.T.O. He turned over, and read the sentence, underlined, 'P.S. Keep an eye on Rocco. 'I wonder what the little creature is up to? he murmured, as he tore the letter into small fragments, and threw them into the waste-paper basket.
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