ved that Zorzi was dead, for he was very white and he lay
quite still. At first she opened her eyes wide in horror, but in a
moment she sank down, covering her face. Pasquale knelt opposite her on
one knee, and began to turn Zorzi on his back. Nella was at his feet,
and she helped, with great gentleness.

"Do not be frightened, lady," said Pasquale reassuringly. "He has only
fainted. I left him on the bench, but you see he must have tried to get
up to feed the fire."

While he spoke he was lifting Zorzi as well as he could. Marietta
dropped her hands and slowly opened her eyes, and she knew that Zorzi
was alive when she saw his face, though it was ghastly and smeared with
grey ashes. But in those few moments she had felt what she could never
forget. It had been as if a vast sword-stroke had severed her body at
the waist, and yet left her heart alive.

"Can you help a little?" asked Pasquale. "If I could get him into my
arms, I could carry him alone."

Marietta sprang to her feet, all her energy and strength returning in a
moment. The three carried the unconscious man easily enough to the bench
and laid him down, as he had lain before, with his head on the leathern
cushion. Then Nella set to work quickly and skilfully, for she hoped to
dress the wound while he was still insensible. Marietta helped her,
instinctively doing what was right. It was a hideous wound.

"It will heal more quickly than you think," said Nella, confidently.
"The burning has cauterised it."

Marietta, delicately reared and unused to such sights, would have felt
faint if the man had not been Zorzi. As it was she only felt sharp pain,
each time that Nella touched the foot. Pasquale looked on, helpless but
approving.

Zorzi groaned, then opened his eyes and moved one hand. Nella had almost
finished.

"If only he can be kept quiet a few moments longer," she said, "it will
be well done."

Zorzi writhed in pain, only half conscious yet. Marietta left Nella to
put on the last bandages, and came and looked down into his face, taking
one of his hands in hers. He recognised her, and stared in wild
surprise.

"You must try and not move," she said softly. "Nella has almost
finished."

He forgot what he suffered, and the agonised contraction of his brows
and mouth relaxed. Marietta wiped away the ashes from his forehead and
cheeks, and smoothed back his thick hair. No woman's hand had touched
him thus since his mother's when he had been a little c