At last Mayda gave the instrument a shake.

How many points had it marked?
The sister did not dare to inquire, and the Professor's face was impenetrable.

Without his noticing the motion, the sick man stretched out his hand and touched him gently on the arm, Mayda turned towards him, and read in his smiling eyes the question, "Well ?" He did not speak, but answered with that undulating movement of open hands which meant neither good, nor bad.

Then he sat down beside the bed, still silent, impenetrable, looking at Benedetto, who had sunk upon his back once more, and no longer looked at him, but was gazing at the specks of light in the immense expanse of blue.
"Professor," he said, "what time is it ?" "Three o'clock." "At five you must send for the priest from Bocca della Verita." "Very well." "Will it be too late ?" This last question the Professor answered with a loud and ringing "No." After a moment of silence he added, in a lower tone, another "no" as if in answer to his own thoughts.

The thermometer had gone up to thirty-seven point five; more than one degree since the evening before.
Should the fever increase, should there be danger of delirium, he would send at once, to Bocca della Verita, even before five o'clock.