I cannot explain everything." "I understand without any explanation.

I think you did right." She went back to the fireplace and sat down in the corner of the sofa, leaning far back and stretching out one foot to the fender in an unconscious attitude of perfect grace.

In the grey afternoon the firelight began to play in her auburn hair.

Now and then she glanced at Marcello with half-closed lids, and there was a suggestion of a smile on her lips.

Marcello saw that in her way she was as beautiful as Regina, and he remembered how they had kissed, without a word, when the moon's rays quivered through the trees by the Roman shore, more than two years ago.