Sophy had not mentioned their names, or given any cards to Piero, and he was too discreet a person to ask questions. When, therefore, he announced to Amaldi that there were visitors for him, he said merely, "due signore" (two ladies).
Amaldi came in to find Sophy standing alone in the middle of the room, her hands locked tight together, and her eyes fixed on the door by which he entered. The next instant he was close to her, and she was faltering out:
"I thought you were ... dead.... Then I knew...."
"What?... You knew ... what?" he said dazedly.
She kept her eyes on his—they looked scared and brave and piteous at the same time.
"That I ... cared for you ... more than I knew...."
Things went black before Amaldi for a second. He had been through a hideous night with poor Nano. He had seen him lying on the pavement drenched with blood—dead to all appearance. Then had come the long hours of waiting for the doctors' verdict. Then the shock of hope after the long vigil. Now this....
He mastered himself, thinking that he could not have taken her meaning rightly.
"It was ... like you ... to come...." he said almost stupidly. He felt stupefied, not equal to grasping the situation fitly.
But now Sophy held out her locked hands to him. Her white face flushed and quivered.