"What does he want?"
Her dimples fluttered. "He wants me to be good," she said, laughing, with wistful eyes. "And to write."
Aldo pressed the little fist with the crumpled blue letter in it to his lips. "Well, write," he said. "Write at once."
He took the ivory pen and dipped it in the ink and put it in her hand; then he pulled the sheet of white paper which was to be The Book before her.
"Write: 'Dear Englishman, I am going to marry Aldo della Rocca. He adores me.'"
And Nancy, with her hair almost touching the paper, wrote: "Dear Englishman, I am going to marry Aldo della Rocca. I adore him."
The Englishman never got the letter. But he heard of it afterwards; and his English fists closed tight.
XVI
Nancy walked among asphodels and morning glory; and her soul was plunged in happiness and her eyes were washed with light. The Book waited.
They went out in the little boat at sunset. Aldo stood at the sail, and the red sky was a background for his profile.