When he had gone away, she bent down and kissed devotedly the wall of the terrace, where he had leaned, speaking to her.
And then she went to each of the big vases that stood in a row along the terrace, and picked all the flowers that grew in them, the roses, the geraniums, the jasmine-buds, and pressed them to her bosom in a mass, because they had listened to her talk with him. And before re-entering the house, she looked again, with brilliant eyes full of happiness, upon the sea and the sky and the wide moonlit landscape.
Within the house every one was asleep. The servant who was sitting up for Laura and Stella nodded in the anti-chamber. Anna was quite alone, and her heart danced for joy.
Silently she passed through the house, and entered her mother's room.
"Oh, Mamma, Mamma, it is you who have done this," she said.
END OF PART I.