"I would not have it undone, Gianluca."
And before that great unselfishness, Veronica bowed her head down, until her lips kissed his hands. But as she touched them, she heard the door open, and instantly she was erect again, and trying to smile. Taquisara came in.
Veronica rose, for she felt that she could not sit still by Gianluca's side, with his words in her ear, her own scarcely cold upon her lips, and the man for whom she would have given her soul's salvation, who would have died ten deaths for her, standing quietly there, looking on. She walked nervously up and down the room.
"Should you like to fence?" asked Taquisara. "We have not touched a foil to-day."
Anything seemed good which could pass the time without talking. But to her it seemed heartless just then.
"No," she answered, almost curtly. "It seems to me that we are always fencing."
But Gianluca understood why she refused. And to him, perhaps, anything was better than thinking.
"Please do!" he said. "I enjoy it so much!"
Mechanically and without a word, she went to the corner where the foils and other things were kept in a great carved chest.
Taquisara moved a large table out of the way, pushing it slowly before him.