stretched out, she began moving towards the garden! Fabio instantly ran out of the other door of the room, and running quickly round the corner of the house, bolted the door that led into the garden. . . . He had scarcely time to grasp at the bolt, when he felt some one trying to open the door from the inside, pressing against it . . . again and again . . . and then there was the sound of piteous passionate moans . . .
'But Muzzio has not come back from the town,' flashed through Fabio's head, and he rushed to the pavilion . . .
What did he see?
Coming towards him, along the path dazzlingly lighted up by the moon's rays, was Muzzio, he too moving like one moonstruck, his hands held out before him, and his eyes open but unseeing. . . . Fabio ran up to him, but he, not heeding him, moved on, treading evenly, step by step, and his rigid face smiled in the moonlight like the Malay's. Fabio would have called him by his name . . . but at that instant he heard, behind him in the house, the creaking of a window. . . . He looked round. . . .
Yes, the window of the bedroom was open from top to bottom, and putting one foot over the sill, Valeria stood in the window . . . her hands seemed to be seeking Muzzio . . . she seemed striving all over towards him. . . .
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