Winterbourne came
forward again and went toward the great cross. Daisy had got up;
Giovanelli lifted his hat. Winterbourne had now begun to think
simply of the craziness, from a sanitary point of view, of a delicate
young girl lounging away the evening in this nest of malaria.
What if she WERE a clever little reprobate? that was no reason
for her dying of the perniciosa. "How long have you been here?"
he asked almost brutally.
Daisy, lovely in the flattering moonlight, looked at him a moment.
Then--"All the evening," she answered, gently. * * * "I never saw
anything so pretty."
"I am afraid," said Winterbourne, "that you will not think
Roman fever very pretty. This is the way people catch it.
I wonder," he added, turning to Giovanelli, "that you,
a native Roman, should countenance such a terrible indiscretion."
"Ah," said the handsome native, "for myself I am not afraid."
"Neither am I--for you! I am speaking for this young lady."
Giovanelli lifted his well-shaped eyebrows and showed his brilliant teeth.
But he took Winterbourne's rebuke with docility. "I told the signorina it
was a grave indiscretion, but when was the signorina ever prudent?"
"I never was sick, and I don't mean to be!" the signorina declared.
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