Vittoria led the girl toward her room, but outside the door Myra Nell paused, shaking in every limb.
"You—you love him?" asked the other woman.
The look which Miss Warren gave her stabbed like a knife, and when the girl had sunk to her knees beside the bed, with Blake's name upon her lips, Vittoria stood for a long moment gazing down upon her dazedly.
Later, when she had sent Myra Nell home and silence lay over the city, Norvin's nurse stole into the great front room where she had experienced so much of gladness and horror that night, and made her way wearily to the little image of the Virgin. She noted with a start that the candle was gone, so she lit a new one and, kneeling for many minutes, prayed earnestly for strength to do the right and to quench the leaping, dazzling flame which had been kindled in her heart.
XXII
A MISUNDERSTANDING
Several days later Vittoria Fabrizi led Bernie Dreux into the room where Norvin lay. The little man walked on tiptoe and wore an expression of such gloomy sympathy that Blake said:
"Please don't look so blamed pious; it makes me hurt all over."
Bernie's features lightened faintly; he smiled in a manner bordering upon the natural.
"They wouldn't let me see you before. Lord! How you have frightened us!"