She was naturally strong--I can see that--and had I been called in when the symptoms first developed themselves, I could have cured her.

The nurse tells me she dared not enter the mother's room to disturb her after midnight, otherwise she would have called her to see the child--it is unfortunate, for now I can do nothing." I listened like one in a dream.

Not even old Assunta dared to enter her mistress's room after midnight--no! not though the child might be seriously ill and suffering.

I knew the reason well--too well! And so while Ferrari had taken his fill of rapturous embraces and lingering farewells, my little one had been allowed to struggle in pain and fever without her mother's care or comfort.

Not that such consolation would have been much at its best, but I was fool enough to wish there had been this one faint spark of womanhood left in her upon whom I had wasted all the first and only love of my life.