"
"You care for nothing else? Nothing else in the whole world?"
"Nothing," said Zorzi.
"You must be very lonely in your thoughts," she said, and turned away.
As she went slowly along the path her hand hung by her side, and the
rose she held fell from her fingers. Following her at a short distance,
on his way back to the laboratory, Zorzi stooped and picked up the
flower, not thinking that she would turn her head. But at that moment
she had reached the door, and she looked back and saw what he had done.
She stood still and held out her hand, expecting him to come up with
her.
"My rose!" she exclaimed, as if surprised. "Give it back to me."
Zorzi gave it to her, and the colour came to his face a second time. She
fastened it in her bodice, looking down at it as she did so.
"I am so fond of roses," she said, smiling a little. "Are you?"
"I planted all those you have here," he answered.
"Yes--I know."
She looked up as she spoke, and met his eyes, and all at once she
laughed, not unkindly, nor as if at him, nor at what he had said, but
quietly and happily, as women do when they have got what they want.
Zorzi did not understand.
"You are gay," he said coldly.
"Do you wonder?" she asked. "If you knew what I know, you would
understand.
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