"When?"
"When we talked in the hut in the hollow of the hill. You said you would be all that you could be to me."
"Did I say as much as that? And when I was Countess of Fieramondi! Oh!"
"Yes, and you let me do something—even when you were Countess of Fieramondi, too!"
"That was not playing the part well."
The Captain looked just a little doubtful, and Lucia laughed.
"Anyhow," said he, "you 're not Countess of Fieramondi now."
She looked up at him.
"You 're a very devout young lady," he continued, "who goes all the way to Rome to consult the Bishop of Mesopotamia. Now, that"—the Captain took both her hands in his—"is exactly the sort of wife for me."
"Monsieur le Capitaine, I have always thought you a courageous man, and now I am sure of it. You have seen—and aided—all my deceit; and now you want to marry me!"