Rossi listened for a moment, but there was not a sound to be heard

except that of the different clocks chiming the quarter. Then he tapped

lightly on the glass.

"Roma!" he said in a low tone. "Roma!"

She rose up and shrank back. Then coming to the door, and shielding her

eyes from the light, she put her face close to the pane. At the next

moment she threw the door open.

"Is it you?" she said in a tremulous voice, and taking his hand she drew

him hurriedly into the house.

XII After the Baron was gone, Roma had sat a long time in the dark among the

ruins of the broken bust. When twelve o'clock struck she was feeling hot

and feverish, and, in spite of the coldness of the night, she rose and

opened the window. The snow had ceased to fall, the thunder was gone,

and the city was quiet.

At that moment the revolving searchlight on Monte Mario passed over the

room. The white flash lit up the broken fragments at her feet, and

brought a new train of reflections. The bust she destroyed had been only

the plaster cast; the piece-mould remained, and might be a cause of

danger.

She closed the window, took a candle, and went down to the studio to put

the mould out of the way. She had done so, and was sitting to rest and

to think when Rossi's knock came at the door. In a moment all her dreams

were gone. She was clasped in his arms and had put up her mouth to be

kissed.

"Is it you?"

"Roma!"

It was not at first that she realised what was happening, but after a

moment she recovered from her bewilderment, and extinguished the candle

lest Rossi should be seen from outside.

They were in the dark, save at intervals when the revolving light in its

circuit of the city swept across the studio, and lit up their faces as

by a flash of lightning. He seemed to be dazed. His weary eyes looked as

if their light were almost extinct.

"You are safe? You are well?" she asked.

"O God! what sights!" he said. "You have heard what has happened?"

"Yes, yes! But you are not injured?"

"The people were peaceful and meant no evil, but the soldiers were

ordered to fire, and our little boy is dead."

"Don't let us speak of it.... The police were told to arrest you, but

you have escaped thus far, and now...."




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