The excitement of his brother's arrival had proved too great, and he fell from one fainting fit into another.

Wentworth was greatly alarmed, but the doctor was reassuring and cheerful.

He said that Michael had borne the news with almost unnatural calmness, but that the shock must have been great, and a breakdown was to be expected.

He laughed at Wentworth's anxiety even while he ministered to Michael, and assured him that no one in his experience had died of joy.
But later in the evening when Wentworth, somewhat pacified, had returned to Venice for the night, the doctor felt yet again for the twentieth time that the young Englishman baffled him.
It seemed to him that he was actually relieved when the kind, awkward, tender elder brother had reluctantly taken his departure, promising to come back early in the morning.
"Do not distress yourself, you will be quite well enough to leave to-morrow," the doctor said to him many times.

"I expected this momentary collapse.