At the door she glanced back at Zoya with a
half-questioning look, which the contessa answered by blowing her a
kiss.
That night the little sleep Nina was able to get was fitful and broken
by dreams. The duke and his mother appeared to her as cuttlefish in a
cave under perpendicular cliffs that ran into the sea. Nina was out in a
little boat alone, and the waves dashed the tiny craft nearer and nearer
to the cave where the cuttlefish were waiting; finally she came so close
that one tentacle seized her. Terrified, she awoke. After hours of
half-waking, half-sleeping, formless confusion, she dreamed again. In
this dream she and Giovanni were on horseback. She was sitting in a most
precarious position on the horse's shoulder, but was held securely by
Giovanni's arm around her waist. Behind them she heard the pounding of
many horses in pursuit. The whole dream had the underlying terror of a
nightmare, and just as the distance diminished, and they were nearly
caught, the ground gave way and they pitched over a precipice. As they
were falling and about to be dashed on the rocks at the bottom of the
ravine, she heard a woman's laugh, and recognized it as that of the
Contessa Maria Potensi.
She awoke, trembling, and lit her lamp. It was nearly four o'clock, and
she had slept but half an hour.
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