"I should be ashamed to want anything at such a price," returned Zorzi proudly.
"You hold your honour high, even in trifles."
"It is all I have—my honour and my art."
"You care for nothing else? Nothing else in the whole world?"
"Nothing," said Zorzi.
"You must be very lonely in your thoughts," she said, and turned away.
As she went slowly along the path her hand hung by her side, and the rose she held fell from her fingers. Following her at a short distance, on his way back to the laboratory, Zorzi stooped and picked up the flower, not thinking that she would turn her head. But at that moment she had reached the door, and she looked back and saw what he had done. She stood still and held out her hand, expecting him to come up with her.
"My rose!" she exclaimed, as if surprised. "Give it back to me."
Zorzi gave it to her, and the colour came to his face a second time. She fastened it in her bodice, looking down at it as she did so.
"I am so fond of roses," she said, smiling a little. "Are you?"