Four or five days had passed since he had talked with her in the garden, and she was now formally promised to Jacopo Contarini.

He wondered why she had come with Nella, and he remembered her earnest offer of friendship.

She meant to show him that she was still in earnest, he supposed.

It had been perfect happiness to feel her cool young hand on his forehead, to press it in his own.

No one could take that from him, as long as he lived.