To her, it seemed to have come suddenly at the end, and she did not quite realize how it was that she found herself standing on one side of the fireplace, while he stood on the other.
They looked at each other a moment. Then Veronica smiled faintly, and drew herself up—or lengthened herself—as slight young girls have a way of doing when they are pleased, and she turned a little in the movement, and glanced at the clock, still faintly smiling.
Bosio was watching her, and he could not help admiring her lithe figure and small, well-poised head, that had a sort of girlish royalty of carriage not at all connected with beauty; for she was not beautiful, and she herself knew that there were times when she was almost ugly. He saw and admired, and he cursed himself for what he meant to do. He was not sure, even now, that he could do it.
There was no awkwardness in the silence, Veronica thought, for it seemed to her that he understood, and that words were hardly necessary. If she had meant to refuse him, she would have done so through Matilde. She smiled, looking at the clock, and thinking about it all. Then she realized that no word had been spoken on either side, and she turned her head a little shyly, till she could just see his face, while the smile still lingered on her lips. One hand rested on the mantelpiece, with the other she touched the artificial gardenia in her bodice.
"That is my answer, you know," she said quietly, and her eyes waited for his.
But he only glanced at her face, and for a moment he did not move. Then, with a graceful inclination he took her hand and raised it to his lips. She noticed even then that his own hand was dry and burning. He did not trust himself to speak. When he looked up, the room whirled with him, and he saw strange colours. He thought his teeth were chattering.
"Are you glad?" she asked, wondering a little at his silence now, and the room seemed strangely still all at once.
"Is it quite of your own free will?" he asked, as though it cost him an effort to say anything.
"Yes—quite. Of course!" Her face grew bright as though she were happy in removing the one doubt he had.
"I am very glad of that," he said quietly.