"So the message came. You refused, and now you look for a reward. A man must be paid!"
"I tried to keep the other engagement and could not!"
"I shall make you forget it, as if it were some silly boyish dream." She began to walk over the moonlit grass. "I was waiting for that—sacrifice. For if you desire me, you must leave the other engagements, always."
"I know it."
"I lie in the laguna morta, and the dead are under me, and the living are caught in my sea-weed." She laughed.
"Now, we have several long hours of moonlight. Shall we stay here?"
The young man shivered.
"No, the Lady Dogessa might disturb us. Let us go out toward Murano."
"Are you really—alive and mine, not Severance's?" he threw out, recklessly.
She stopped and smiled.