But she was more unnerved and less observant than Bosio had been, and she did not notice the extraordinary resemblance between the colour of the woman's one eye and that of Giuditta's two.

She descended the stairs slowly, feeling dizzy at the turnings, but steadying herself as she went down each straight flight.

She made her way quickly to the nearest large thoroughfare and took the first passing cab to get home, for she felt that she had not strength left to walk much more on that day.
She had a moment of weakness and doubt, as she went up her own stairs, knowing that in half an hour she must sit down to table with Gregorio and with Veronica.

It would be the last time, for Veronica would never sit down with them again.

She had not realized exactly how it was to be.
Henceforth, at that table, two places were to be vacant, of two persons dead within a fortnight, the one by his own hand, the other by hers; and from that day, when she and her husband sat there, the shadows of those two would be between them always.
She paused on the staircase, and steadied herself with her hand against the wall.