Was it not to that the prefect was alluding?"
"Miss Lydia! Can you believe it!" and Orso turned deadly pale.
"No, M. della Rebbia," she said, interrupting him, "I know you to be a
most honourable gentleman. You have told me yourself that it was
only the common people in your country who still practised the
_vendetta_--which you are pleased to describe as a kind of duel."
"Do you, then, believe me capable of ever becoming a murderer?"
"Since I have mentioned the subject at all, Monsieur Orso, you must
clearly see that I do not suspect you, and if I have spoken to you at
all," she added, dropping her eyes, "it is because I have realized that
surrounded, it may be, by barbarous prejudices on your return home, you
will be glad to know that there is somebody who esteems you for having
the courage to resist them. Come!" said she, rising to her feet, "don't
let us talk again of such horrid things, they make my head ache, and
besides it's very late. You are not angry with me, are you? Let us say
good-night in the English fashion," and she held out her hand.
Orso pressed it, looking grave and deeply moved.
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