She knew at last really why--and how she had been inspired and guided, how she had been persistently able, how, to her soul, all the while, it had been for the sake of this end.

Here it was, then, the moment, the golden fruit that had shone from afar; only, what were these things, in the fact, for the hand and for the lips, when tested, when tasted--what were they as a reward?
Closer than she had ever been to the measure of her course and the full face of her act, she had an instant of the terror that, when there has been suspense, always precedes, on the part of the creature to be paid, the certification of the amount.

Amerigo knew it, the amount; he still held it, and the delay in his return, making her heart beat too fast to go on, was like a sudden blinding light on a wild speculation.

She had thrown the dice, but his hand was over her cast.
He opened the door, however, at last--he hadn't been away ten minutes; and then, with her sight of him renewed to intensity, she seemed to have a view of the number.

His presence alone, as he paused to look at her, somehow made it the highest, and even before he had spoken she had begun to be paid in full.