Her eyelids trembled, but she tried to laugh.
"Yes, dear. True! Not immediately. Oh, no! not immediately. But signed and sealed, you know, and not to be put aside that anybody may be happy much longer."
She was laughing almost gaily. But all the same she was watching him closely, and now that her word was spoken she suddenly became conscious of a secret desire which she had not suspected. She wanted him to contradict her, to tell her she was quite wrong, to convince and defeat her.
"Poor little me! Pity, isn't it? It would have been so sweet to go on a little longer—especially after this reconciliation. And when one has kept one's heart under bolt and bar so long...."
Her sad gaiety was breaking down. "But it's better so, isn't it?"
He did not reply.
"Ah, yes, it's better so when you come to think of it."
"It's terrible!" said Rossi.
"Don't say that. It's a thing of every day. Here, there, everywhere. God wouldn't allow it to go on if it were terrible."
"It's bitterly cruel for all that."