Was she waiting for me to say something? Were inexpressible words rising to those hidden lips?
When finally, by an effort, I conquered the condition of inertia in which extraordinary alternations of lucidity and darkness had succeeded each other, I said, in a tone of voice that I would have used, I believe, in continuing a conversation already begun, by adding new words to words already spoken—I said slowly:
"Mother wants me to send for Doctor Vebesti. I have promised to write. I will write."
She did not raise her eyelids; she remained mute. Maria, in her innocence, looked at her with surprise; then she looked at me, too.
I rose to go out.
"To-day, after lunch, I will go with Federico to the Assoro woods. Shall we see one another this evening on my return?"
She made no movement to answer. Then I repeated, in a voice that conveyed a thousand things understood:
"Shall we see one another this evening on my return?" From between her lips, hidden among Natalia's curls, came like a sigh:
"Yes."
XIV.