He hurried to wash; and still busy with the towel, damp and fresh with the cold water, he came back to kiss her.
"You're as pink as a strawberry ice!" she said admiringly, and so they made peace.
With the coming on of the hot days Regina's nostalgia, nervousness and melancholy increased. At night she tossed and turned, and sometimes groaned softly. At last she confessed to Antonio that her heart troubled her.
"Palpitations for hours at a time till I can hardly breathe! It feels as if my chest would burst and let my heart escape. It must be the stairs. I never used to have palpitations!"
Much alarmed, her husband wished to take her to a specialist, but this she opposed.
"It will go off the moment I get away," she said.
They decided she must go at the end of June. Antonio would take his holiday in August and join her, remaining at her mother's for a fortnight.
"After that, if we've any money left, we'll spend a few days at Viareggio."
Regina said neither yea nor nay. After the first seven months the young couple had only 200 lire in hand. This was barely enough for the journey; Antonio, however, hoped to put by a little while his wife was away.