"It's the weather, the sirocco," said Dias.
"Yes, the sirocco," repeated Anna.
"You'll be all right when the sun shines," said he.
"When the sun shines, perhaps," she repeated mechanically.
Laura rose, and left the room.
After a silence, Cesare Dias said, "It is true, then, that you love me?"
Anna looked at him. She could not speak. She made a gesture that said yes.
"I should like to know why," he remarked, playing with his watch-chain.
She looked her surprise, but did not speak.
"Yes, why," he went on. "You must have a reason. There must be a reason if a woman loves one man and not another. Tell me. Perhaps I have virtues whose existence I have never suspected."