Nor pay you half the homage is your due.

BEA. Pay me no homage, Mario,--but if it be
I have your friendship, I shall treasure it.

MAR. That you will have always.

BEA. Then you will promise me
Never to let her know. I never told her
How it was with us, or that I cherished you
More than another. It was on my tongue to tell her
The moment she returned, but she had seen you
Already on the bridge as she went by,
And had leaned out to look at you, it seems,
And you were looking at her,--and the first words
She said, after she kissed me, were, "Oh, sister,
I have looked at last by daylight on the man
I see in my dreams!"

MAR. [Tenderly.] Did she say that?

BEA. [Drily.] Ay, that
Was what she said.--By which I knew, you see,
My dream was over,--it could not but be you.
So that I said no word, but my quick blood
Went suddenly quiet in my veins, and I felt
Years older than Bianca. I drew her head
Down to my shoulder, that she might not see my face,
And she spoke on, and on. You must not tell her,
Even when you both are old, and there is nothing