His cousin turned her head, and watched him unseen. She saw his face grow crimson as he read, the veins standing out on his forehead, then grow pale again. She had thought while they sat at dinner that he was looking pale.
He stood bent down, with his eyes fixed on the page, and, without turning the leaf, gazing at what he had read as if he did not understand it.
"My dear friend," Mrs. Lindsay had written, "after a certain conversation which we had some time ago, I think I ought to tell you my news without delay. The Duke of Sassovivo is with us, and this evening he has presented Aurora to us as his future wife."
He stood so long gazing at the words that his cousin went to him.
"Excuse me, Edith, I must go out," he said, in a stifled voice.
"Good-night, Edward," she said, and asked no questions, but held out her hand.
The hand that took hers was cold, and her good-night received not a word of response.
He went out and called a gondola.
"Where to?" the gondolier asked.
"Anywhere!"