"Your name was not spoken. I have fastened the branch. Is there anything
else for me to do?"

"Have you no curiosity to know what I would have given you?" asked
Marietta.

"I should be ashamed to want anything at such a price," returned Zorzi
proudly.

"You hold your honour high, even in trifles."

"It is all I have--my honour and my art."

"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