“No, I left Florence at the beginning of December.”
“For St. Petersburg?”
“Yes.”
“And have you been here ever since?”
“Yes. You were absent at my arrival, otherwise I should not have waited till the present time to solicit the favor I have just obtained.”
There was another momentary pause. The young girl looked around, and continued, in a lower tone: “You were here, then, the twenty-fourth of December?”
“I was.”
She hesitated an instant, then, lowering her voice still more, said: “And have you seen your friend since that fatal day?”
“Yes, and I hope to see him once more—alas! for the last time.”
Vera bit her lips, quivering with agitation, but soon resumed, with a coolness that surprised and, for a moment, disconcerted the marquis: