And then, I saved his life.

Are you glad that Regina saved your life ?" She bent down again, and her gentle hand played with Marcello's waving fair hair.

"What should you have done without Regina ?" "I should have died," Marcello answered happily.
With much more strength than she had been used to find in him, he threw his arms round her neck and drew her face down to his.
The Superintendent spoke to the nurse in a low tone, by the door, and both went out, leaving the two together.

He was a sensible man, and a kind-hearted one; and though he was no doctor, he guessed that the peasant girl's glorious vitality would do as much for the sick man as any medicine..