Don't you see she is almost ready to faint?
Just go quietly with the rest, and come for her to-morrow morning to take her to your mother." So they all left as he wished, and he himself went back upstairs to the big drawing-room and there saw Zara standing like a marble statue, exactly as they had left her, and he went forward, and, bending, kissed her hand.
"Most beautifully endured, my queenly niece!" he said; and then he led her to the door and up to her room.

She was perfectly mute.
But a little while afterwards, as he came to bed himself, he was startled and chilled by hearing the _Chanson Triste_ being played in her sitting-room, with a wailing, passionate pathos, as of a soul in anguish.
And if he could have seen her face he would have seen her great eyes streaming with tears, while she prayed: "_Maman_, ask God to give me courage to get through all of this, since it is for your Mirko.".