You will get an illness, and I can do nothing! There is not
even a little wine here to warm you.'

He smiled and shook his head.

'Never mind me,' he answered. 'Or let me take your hand in mine for a
moment and the chill will pass!'

He put out his own, and when she felt that it was cold and wet, she took
it in both of hers and tried to dry it, and chafed it between her palms,
till he drew it away rather suddenly with a low laugh.

'Thank you,' he said. 'That is enough!'

'No, let me warm it better, or give me the other!'

'There is too much fire in your touch,' he answered. 'It burns through
cold and wet. It would burn through ice itself!'

His tone made her forget her first anxiety for him; but she felt that
she must explain why she was there, if only to quiet her own conscience.

'I would not have come if it had not rained,' she said, avoiding his
eyes, 'and now I must not stay with you. As soon as it stops you must
let yourself out and go away. It was only when I heard the rain----'

'Blessings on the rain!' answered Stradella devoutly. 'I never loved it
before!'

'You should not have come on such a night--I mean----'

She stopped and he saw her blush in the faint light that came up from
the lamp on the floor.

'I had no choice, since I had promised,' he answered. 'And I promise you
I will come to-morrow again----'

'Oh, do not promise--please!' She seemed distressed.

'Yes, I will come to-morrow and every night, until you come away with
me. I will bring you a disguise in which you can travel safely till we
are over the Venetian border and free.'

'But I cannot--I will not!' she protested. 'You speak as if--as if----'

'As if we loved each other, heart and soul, for life or death,' he said,
not letting her go on, and taking her hand again. 'I speak as if we had
been born into the world only for that, to love and live and die
together! As if there were no woman for me but you in all the earth, and
no man for you but me! As if our lips had promised and had met!'

She was drinking his words, and her eyes were in his as he bent to her
face. But then she started, in returning consciousness, and tried to
draw back.

'No, no!' she cried, in sudden maiden distress. 'Not yet! It is too
soon!'

He drew her nearer to him in spite of herself, with both her hands in
his, till he could speak close to her ear.

'Tell me you do not love me, love! Tell me you will not feel one little
regret if you never see