"Let me call him," said Amaldi.
When he came back, she was sitting on one of the little stone seats near the railing of the terrace. He longed to see her face more clearly, yet he, too, did not want to go into the light just then.
"It was very hot in Rome," he said conventionally. "I'm glad to be back again."
"Yes," said Sophy. "It is nice to have you back."
She felt the flatness of this "nice."
"We ... missed you," she added quickly.
"Thank you," said Amaldi. His voice shook a little.
"I ... I thought perhaps you mightn't come till I had gone."
He was silent a second, then he said in a queer voice:
"Could you really have thought that?"