Rossi listened for a moment, but there was not a sound to be heard
except that of the different clocks chiming the quarter. Then he tapped
lightly on the glass.
"Roma!" he said in a low tone. "Roma!"
She rose up and shrank back. Then coming to the door, and shielding her
eyes from the light, she put her face close to the pane. At the next
moment she threw the door open.
"Is it you?" she said in a tremulous voice, and taking his hand she drew
him hurriedly into the house.
XII After the Baron was gone, Roma had sat a long time in the dark among the
ruins of the broken bust. When twelve o'clock struck she was feeling hot
and feverish, and, in spite of the coldness of the night, she rose and
opened the window. The snow had ceased to fall, the thunder was gone,
and the city was quiet.
At that moment the revolving searchlight on Monte Mario passed over the
room. The white flash lit up the broken fragments at her feet, and
brought a new train of reflections. The bust she destroyed had been only
the plaster cast; the piece-mould remained, and might be a cause of
danger.
She closed the window, took a candle, and went down to the studio to put
the mould out of the way. She had done so, and was sitting to rest and
to think when Rossi's knock came at the door. In a moment all her dreams
were gone. She was clasped in his arms and had put up her mouth to be
kissed.
"Is it you?"
"Roma!"
It was not at first that she realised what was happening, but after a
moment she recovered from her bewilderment, and extinguished the candle
lest Rossi should be seen from outside.
They were in the dark, save at intervals when the revolving light in its
circuit of the city swept across the studio, and lit up their faces as
by a flash of lightning. He seemed to be dazed. His weary eyes looked as
if their light were almost extinct.
"You are safe? You are well?" she asked.
"O God! what sights!" he said. "You have heard what has happened?"
"Yes, yes! But you are not injured?"
"The people were peaceful and meant no evil, but the soldiers were
ordered to fire, and our little boy is dead."
"Don't let us speak of it.... The police were told to arrest you, but
you have escaped thus far, and now...."