ld not compare with Giovanni's course in
silently waiting fourteen or fifteen hours and then deliberately going
out in the dull gray dawn and standing up at forty paces as a target for
Scorpa's bullet. She thought how, while she had been merely tossing in
her bed, unable to sleep, intent on herself, dwelling on her injured
dignity and the horror of that brute's touch, Giovanni had been sitting
up through the same long night, putting his affairs in order, and
looking death in the face! And she found herself forced to realize that
Giovanni--whose instability had been the strongest argument against
allowing herself to love him--had paid a price so high that his right to
her faith must henceforward be unquestioned.

She had only a vague idea when luncheon ended, or what visits she and
her uncle and aunt paid that afternoon. She went through the rest of the
day as though dazed. Fortunately, her agitation seemed natural to the
prince and princess, and her apparent interest in Giovanni was so near
to the truth that she did not mind. Late that afternoon she and Zoya
Olisco sat together behind the tea table, for most of the time alone.
Zoya had the story pretty straight, but Nina simply looked at her
dumbly--answering nothing. She was relieved, however, to hear that, so
far, people had evidently not ferreted out the facts.

They were not to find out through the papers. On the morning after the
duel, the _Tribunale_ had this paragraph:

"Society of Rome will be sorry to learn that the
Duke Scorpa is seriously ill at his Palazzo. The
doctor's bulletins announce that their illustrious
patient is suffering from a malignant case of
fever which at the best will mean an illness of
many weeks."

But it was not until the next day that there was a paragraph to the
effect that the Marchese di Valdo had met with an accident. A passer-by
had seen him slip in front of his club, the Circolo d'Acacia. It seems
the wind carried his hat off suddenly, and, as he put his hand out to
catch it, he fell and broke his arm. Following this came several other
social items, and then the second day's bulletin about the Duke Scorpa,
saying that the gravity of his condition remained unchanged.

Nina quite refused to be moved to pity by the news of Scorpa's critical
state. Her only anxiety in connection with him was, what would they do
to Giovanni, in case Scorpa should die? For _how_ was Giovann