Following her at a short distance, on his way back to the laboratory, Zorzi stooped and picked up the flower, not thinking that she would turn her head.

But at that moment she had reached the door, and she looked back and saw what he had done.
She stood still and held out her hand, expecting him to come up with her.
"My rose!" she exclaimed, as if surprised.

"Give it back to me." Zorzi gave it to her, and the colour came to his face a second time.

She fastened it in her bodice, looking down at it as she did so.
"I am so fond of roses," she said, smiling a little.

"Are you ?" "I planted all those you have here," he answered.
"Yes--I know." She looked up as she spoke, and met his eyes, and all at once she laughed, not unkindly, nor as if at him, nor at what he had said, but quietly and happily, as women do when they have got what they want.
Zorzi did not understand.
"You are gay," he said coldly.
"Do you wonder ?" she asked.