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"Mauri, will you tell me... I don't even know whether it is a brother or a sister that is buried here."

"It was a little girl, Toti."

"Did she... did she die when my mother...?"

"Yes."

Of a sudden Mauri sank to the ground and buried her head in her arms, weeping with a desolate intensity of passion that surprised and moved him deeply.

"Mauri! Forgive me! I didn't know...."

He broke off helplessly, stirred by this sorrow so much sharper than his own. It gave him a changed conception of the warmth and tenderness of Mauri's nature, and of the relationship that must have existed between her and his mother. At last she rose and led the way back to the river. When they had crossed she stood on the pier in silence for a moment.

"You will forgive me, Toti, to cry so much? I loved your mother, I don't go often to their graves."

"I shouldn't have asked you."

"No, no. It was right I should go with you. But not since a long time have I gone. It is my father who takes care of the graves."

She kissed him as she had before.