"Well ... I ... I was afraid you might be kept," she stumbled. There had been a hurt in his voice.
"Nothing could have kept me from saying good-by to you," he said quietly.
Her head turned towards him, quick and startled.
"Oh! Are you going away again?" she said—then caught her lip between her teeth in the soft gloom.
"No," said Amaldi very low.
Sophy felt the strange tension of this halting talk. She rose suddenly.
"Perhaps we had better go in after all," she said, and her tone was full of the embarrassment against which she struggled. "We seem like two disembodied spirits talking out of the dusk like this."
"I wish we were," came the answer, tense and abrupt as though in spite of his will.
"Oh, no," she faltered, attempting a little laugh which died out helplessly. "We are both too fond of life for that, Marchese."
"I could be fond of it."