She shook her head.
"I have followed you hither from Rome,—I passed you on the night of your flight. Count Tammus, the commander of Paterno, at one time the friend of the Senator of Rome, has offered me the hospitality of the castelio. No one knows of my presence here, save an old monk, who believes me some itinerant pilgrim, in search of the End of Time," she whispered with her far-away look. "The End of Time."
"They say it is close at hand," Otto replied, holding her hands tightly in his. "Oh, Stephania, how beautiful you are! That which has broken my spirit, seems not to have touched your life!"
"My life is dead," she replied. "What remains,—remains through you. Therefore time has lacked power. But that which has been and is no more, stands immovable before my soul."
He gazed at her with large fear-struck eyes.
"Then—your heart is no longer mine?"
The grasp of the hands in his own tightened.
"Would I be here, silly dreamer? I love you—my heart knows no change. It loved but once—and you!"
All the happiness, slumbering in the deep eyes of the son of Theophano, burst forth as in a glorious aureole of light.
"Then you have never—"