The elder sisters echoed—
"Not the cause."
"It was the ribbon," continued the marchesa. "Nera was entangled with the ribbon when she rose; she did not know it."
"I ought to have held her up," returned Nobili with a glance at Nera, who, with a kind of queenly calm, looked him full in the face with her bold, black eyes.
"I assure you, marchesa, it was the horror of what I had done that kept me from calling on you."
This was not true, and Nera knew it was not true. Nobili had not come, because he dreaded his weakness and her power. Nobili had not come, because he doted on Enrica to that excess, a thought alien to her seemed then to him a crime. What folly! Now he knew Enrica better! All that was changed.
"We have felt very grateful," went on to say the marchesa, "I assure you, Count Nobili, very grateful."
The poor lady was much exercised in spirit as to how she could frame an available excuse for leaving the count alone with Nera. Had she only known beforehand, she would have arranged a little plan to do so, naturally. But it must be done, she knew. It must be done at any price, or Nera would never forgive her.
"You have been so agreeably occupied, too," Nera said, in a firm, full voice. "No wonder, Count Nobili, you had no time to visit us."
There was a mute reproach in these few words that made Nobili wince.