She was very pale as she leaned back in the chair.

Marzio took her hands and robbed them between his dark fingers, still looking into her eyes.
"Ah!" she gasped, "I thought I was dead." Then, as Marzio seemed about to speak, she added faintly: "Don't say it again!" "Lucia--dear Lucia! I knew you were not dead I knew you would come back to me," he said, still in very tender tones.

"Forgive me, child--I did not mean to hurt you." "No?
Oh, papa! Then why did you say it ?" she cried, suddenly bursting into tears and weeping upon his shoulder.

"Tell me it is not true--tell me so!" she sobbed.
Marzio was almost as much disconcerted by Lucia's return to consciousness as he had been by her fainting away.

His nature had unbent, momentarily, under the influence of his strong fear for his daughter's life.