"Nina, Nina!" he called, "you must make haste; the Risposta will soon be coming near, and we must be down in town to welcome Maurice and Francie when they come ashore."
In a second or two she was ready, and he also.
"There are so many things I shall have to tell Maurice," he said, just as they were about to leave the house. "But do you think I shall be able to tell him, Ntoniella? No. He must guess. What you have been to me, what you are to me, how can I tell him or any one?"
He took both her hands in his and looked long and lovingly into her upturned face.
"Ntoniè, tu si state a sciorta mia!" he said, meaning thereby that good-fortune had befallen him at last. It was a pretty speech, and Nina, with her beautiful dark eyes fixed on his, answered him in the same dialect, and almost in the same terms, if in a lower voice:
"E a sciorta mia si tu!"