Finding it necessary, he came shyly up to Vittoria, who put Amalia in his way, kissing whom, he was himself tenderly kissed.
'But girls should not cry!' Vittoria reproved the little woman.
'Why do you cry ?' asked Amalia simply.
'See! she has been crying.' Giacomo appropriated the discovery, perforce of loudness, after the fashion of his sex.
'Why does our Vittoria cry ?' both the children clamoured.
'Because your mother is such a cruel sister to her,' said Laura, passing up to them from the doorway.

She drew Vittoria's head against her breast, looked into her eyes, and sat down among them.

Vittoria sang one low-toned soft song, like the voice of evening, before they were dismissed to their beds.

She could not obey Giacomo's demand for a martial air, and had to plead that she was tired.
When the children had gone, it was as if a truce had ended.

The signora and Ammiani fell to a brisk counterchange of questions relating to the mysterious suspicion which had fallen upon Vittoria.