It kept me in heart and hope through the worst.' 'May I hear your dream ?' asked Basil.
'Nay,' was the gentle reply, with a smile and a shake of the head, 'to you it would seem but foolishness.

Let us speak of other things, and first of yourself.

You, too, are pale, good cousin.

What have you to tell me?
What has come to pass since I saw you ?' With difficulty Basil found words to utter the thought which had led him hither.

He came to it by a roundabout way, and Silvia presently understood: he was indirectly begging her to use her influence with eminent churchmen at Rome, to discover whether Veranilda was yet detained in Italy, or had been sent to the East.