'About two hours. It came on in the Sacramentiste parlour.'
'Ah!' said the father, getting pale.
The doctor looked at him. They said no more. The secret rose up between them, wrapped in the thickest, deepest obscurity.
'Do something for her,' Formosa stammered, in a trembling voice.
But he was summoned; Giovanni whispered to him; the Marquis was undecided for a minute.
'I will come back at once,' he said as he went off.
The doctor had wrapped the invalid's little feet in warm clothes; now he wanted to wrap up her hands. All at once he felt a slight pressure on his hand: Bianca Maria with open eyes was quietly looking at him. The doctor's forehead wrinkled a little with surprise just for a moment.
'How do you feel?' he asked, leaning over the invalid.
She gave a tired little smile, and waved her hand as if to tell him to wait, that she could not speak yet.