"And how have you simplified it?" She put the question innocently enough, and quite thoughtlessly, not even guessing at the truth.
"It has been simplified for me. It came near being simplified into being no existence at all. A few inches made the difference."
"Yes," said Laura, thoughtfully, "the greatest of all differences to you."
"And none at all to any one else," added Ghisleri, with a dry laugh.
She turned her great dark eyes upon him. The lids drooped a little as she scrutinised his face somewhat coldly, but with an odd interest.
"I suppose that might be quite true," she said at last. "Perhaps it is. But I do not like you any the better for saying it in that way."
Ghisleri was silent, but he met her gaze quietly and without flinching, until she looked away. She sighed a little as she took up a bit of embroidery she was doing for some garment of little Herbert's.
"Why do you sigh?" he asked, not expecting that she would answer the question.
"For some one," she said simply, and she began to make a few stitches.
He knew that she was thinking of Maddalena dell' Armi, and his heart smote him.