He could not quite believe that he was almost stupid
with extreme fatigue, and yet he remembered that it had been more like
a calm dream than anything else, a dream of peace and rest. At the
time, it all seemed natural, as the strangest things do when one has
been face to face with death for a few hours, and when one is so tired
that one can hardly think at all.
CHAPTER XV
There was less consternation in the Volterra household than might have
been expected when Sabina did not return before bedtime. The servants
knew that she had gone out with an old gentleman, a certain Signor
Sassi, at about five o'clock, but until Volterra came in, the Baroness
could not find out who Sassi was, and she insisted on searching every
corner of the house, as if she were in quest of his biography, for the
servants assured her that Sabina was still out, and they certainly
knew. She carefully examined Sabina's room too, looking for a note, a
line of writing, anything to explain the girl's unexpected absence.
She could find nothing except the short letter from Sabina's mother to
which reference has been made, and she read it over several times.
Sabina received no letters, and had been living in something like
total isolation. The Baroness had reached a certain degree of intimacy
with her beloved aristocracy; but though she occasionally dropped in
upon it, and was fairly well received, it rarely, if ever, dropped in
upon her.
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