He is badly hurt, but not dead; is that it, Gigia ?" Maria Luisa nodded in the midst of a fit of weeping.
"The surgeon has been, you say?
Yes.

And where is Paolo lying ?" "In Tista's room," sobbed his wife.

"They are with him now." Marzio stood still and hesitated.

He was under the influence of the most violent emotion, and his face betrayed something of what he felt.

The idea of Paolo's death had played a tremendous part in his thoughts during the whole day, and he had firmly believed that he had got rid of that idea, and was to realise in meeting his brother that it had all been a dream.