Maria had refused to see any one. Three times Giuliana came to the palace and asked if she could be of any use, but the answer was always the same: the Countess thanked her friend, but could not see her. Monsignor Saracinesca came twice, and he was admitted to the sickroom; but Maria would not be present, and Don Ippolito made no attempt to disturb her privacy. It was only at rare intervals that she left her husband’s side for a short time, until he was dead. Each day, with the thought of imposing a duty upon herself which he would expect, she bent down and kissed his forehead; when it was finished she kissed him once more, she knelt beside his body half an hour, and then went quietly out of the room.
She had done what she could; so far as in her lay, the expiation was complete; she might have done a little more if life had lingered a little longer; yet, as she closed her eyes, she asked herself whether she had done enough, and afterwards she remembered fancying that a cool breath of peace fanned her burning forehead for a moment before she fell asleep on a little lounge in her dressing-room.
She awoke in bed at night, and it seemed strange that there should be a soft light in the room, for she had always slept in the dark. Perhaps the light was only in her imagination, after all, for when she tried to turn her head on the pillow the glimmer seemed to go out and she fell asleep again. Once more she awoke, and it was still there, and a nursing sister with a nun’s wimple and a dark blue veil was leaning over her. She tried to speak, but she was so very weak that she heard no sound, but only a sort of lisping whisper. The nurse bent nearer to her lips, and she tried to speak again.
‘Have I been asleep long?’ She could just whisper that.
‘You have been very dangerously ill for a long time. You must not try to talk.’
The soft dark eyes looked up to the gentle face in wonder, and the lips moved again.
‘Leone?’ Only that word as a question.
‘Quite, quite well, in Frascati with his tutor. We exchange news every day.’
Sleep again, quick and soft, and after that waking and sleep by day and night, with gradual return to thought and life, till she knew what had happened to her, and was at last well enough to see Leone for a few minutes.