Her cheeks had turned perfectly colorless. Her astonishment at
seeing the young nobleman appeared to have some sensation of
terror mingled with it. The waiting-woman who happened to stand
by her side instinctively stretched out an arm to support her,
observing that she caught at the edge of the table as Fabio
hurried round to get behind it and speak to her. When he drew
near, her head drooped on her breast, and she said, faintly: "I
never knew you were at Pisa; I never thought you would be here.
Oh, I am true to what I said in my letter, though I seem so false
to it!"
"I want to speak to you about the letter--to tell you how
carefully I have kept it, how often I have read it," said Fabio.
She turned away her head, and tried hard to repress the tears
that would force their way into her eyes "We should never have
met," she said; "never, never have met again!"
Before Fabio could reply, the waiting-woman by Nanina's side
interposed.
"For Heaven's sake, don't stop speaking to her here!" she
exclaimed, impatiently. "If the steward or one of the upper
servants was to come in, you would get her into dreadful trouble.
Wait till to-morrow, and find some fitter place than this."
Fabio felt the justice of the reproof immediately. He tore a leaf
out of his pocketbook, and wrote on it, "I must tell you how I
honor and thank you for that letter.
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