She shuddered as she heard him use the familiar pronoun.
"Dear one, dear one," he murmured, trembling with hope, in an immense transport of love.
He drew nearer to her and kissed her on the cheek.
A cry of pain burst from her, and she sprang up, horrified, terrified, and tried to leave the room.
"Oh, for mercy's sake, forgive me. Don't go away. Anna, Anna, forgive me if I have offended you. I love you so! If you go away I shall die."
"People don't die for such slight things."
"Don't let us talk of these dismal things. My love, we mustn't talk of things that will sadden you. Your beautiful face is troubled. Tell me that you forgive me. Do you forgive me?"
"I don't believe it. You don't forgive me. You love another."
But scarcely had he spoken the fatal name when he saw his error. Her eyes blazed; she trembled from head to foot, in a nervous convulsion.
"Listen," she said. "If you have a heart, if you have any pity, if you wish me to stay here with you, never name him again, never name him."
"You are right." But then he added, "And yet you loved him, you love him still."
"Why would you not accept me when I proposed for you?"
"And now why do you love him? Why do you love him?"
"You see, you do love him," he cried in despair.
"Oh, I am a fool. Forgive me, forgive me. But I love you, and I lose my head. I love you, and I am desperate. And I need to know if you still love him. You will always love him? Is it so?"
"Till death," she said, with a strange look and accent.
"Till death," she repeated, with the same strange intonation.
Luigi Caracciolo put his arm round her waist, and drew her slowly towards him.
Her eyes were fixed and void. She did not feel his arms about her. She did not feel his kisses. He kissed her hair, he kissed her sweet white throat, he kissed her little rosy ear. Anna was absorbed in a desperate meditation, far from all human things. He kissed her face, her eyes, her lips; she did not know it. But suddenly she felt his embrace become closer, stronger; she heard his voice change, it was no longer tender and caressing, it was fervid with tumultuous passion, it uttered confused delirious words. Silently, looking at him with burning eyes, she tried to disengage herself.