It is entirely my fault.

But do not ask me why--do not ask me anything, I entreat you--I could not answer you.' Andrea looked at her incredulously.

The thing seemed to him so utterly impossible that it did not affect him painfully.
'Of course you are only joking, Elena ?' She shook her head; there was a lump in her throat, and she could not speak.

She suddenly set her horse into a trot.
Behind them the bells of Santa Sabina and Santa Prisca began to ring through the twilight.

They trotted on in silence, awakening the echoes under the arches and among the temples--all the solitary and desolate ruins on their way.