Though the future still troubled him, opposition to the lover's will must, he knew, be idle.
Several hours before, Basil had scratched on a waxed tablet a few emphatic lines, which his cousin allowed to be transmitted to Veranilda.

They assured her that what he had learned could only--if that were possible--increase his love, and entreated her to grant him were it but a moment's speech after the formal visit, later in the day.
The smile with which she now met him seemed at once gratitude and promise; she was calmer, and less timid.

Though she took little part in the conversation, her words fell very sweetly after the men's speech and the self-confident tones of Aurelia; her language was that of an Italian lady, but in the accent could be marked a slight foreignness, which to Basil's ear had the charm of rarest music, and even to Decius sounded not unpleasing.

Under the circumstances, talk, confined to indifferent subjects, could not last very long; as soon as it began to flag, Decius found an excuse for begging permission to retire.

As though wishing for a word with him in confidence, Aurelia at the same time passed out of the room into the colonnade.