Then she sank down in a heap upon the floor against the three-legged stool, which tottered, lost its balance under her weight, and fell over upon the bricks with a loud crash.

The poor girl had fainted away.
Marzio was startled by the sight and the sound, and then, seeing what had happened, he was very much frightened.

He knelt down beside his daughter's prostrate body and bent over her face.

He raised her up in his long, nervous arms, and lifted her to the old chair till she sat upon it, and he supported her head and body, kneeling on the floor beside her.

A sharp pain shot through his heart, the faint indication of a love not wholly extinguished.
"Lucia, dear Lucia!" he said, in a voice so tender that it sounded strangely in his own ears.