"And you could not find anything of what you had seen, of course."
"I took one of those guides who hang about the entrance waiting for foreigners. He showed me where the temple had been, and the house, and the temple of Castor and Pollux. I did not believe him implicitly, but the ruins were in the right places. Then I walked up a bridge of boards to the house of the Vestals, and went in."
"But there was no lady."
"On the contrary," said Lamberti, and his eyes glittered oddly, "the lady was there."
"The same one whom you had seen in your dream?"
"The same. She was standing facing the sun, for it was still early, and one of her hands was resting against the brick pillar, just as it had rested against the column."
"That is certainly very extraordinary," said Guido, his tone changing. Then he seemed about to speak again, but checked himself.
Lamberti rested his elbows on the table and his chin on his folded hands, and looked into his friend's eyes in silence. His own face had grown perceptibly paler in the last few minutes.
"Guido," he said, after what seemed a long pause, "you were going to ask what happened next. I do not know what you thought, nor what stopped you, for between you and me there is no such thing as indiscretion, and, besides, you will never know who the lady was."
"I do not wish to guess. Do not say anything that could help me."