ep. The word was given to drive to her own house;
rejoiced by which she called his attention deploringly to the condition
of her horses, requesting him to say whether he could imagine them the
best English, and confessing with regret, that she killed three sets a
year--loved them well, notwithstanding. Merthyr saw enough of her to feel
that she was one of the weak creatures who are strong through our greater
weakness; and, either by intuition or quick wit, too lively and too
subtle to be caught by simple suspicion. She even divined that reflection
might tell him she had evaded him by an artifice--a piece of gross
cajolery; and said, laughing: "Concerning friendship, I could offer it to
a boy, like Carlo Ammiani; not to you, signor Powys. I know that I must
check a youth, and I am on my guard. I should be eternally tormented to
discover whether your armour was proof."

"I dare say that a lady who had those torments would soon be able to make
them mine," said Merthyr.

"You could not pay a fairer compliment to some one else," she remarked.
In truth, the candid personal avowal seemed to her to hold up Vittoria's
sacred honour in a crystal, and the more she thought of it, the more she
respected him, for his shrewd intelligence, if not for his sincerity; but
on the whole she fancied him a loyal friend, not solely a clever maker of
phrases; and she was pleased with herself for thinking such a matter
possible, in spite of her education.

"I do most solemnly hope that you may not have to sustain Countess
Alessandra under any affliction whatsoever," she said at parting.

Violetta had escaped an exposure--a rank and naked accusation of her
character and deeds. She feared nothing but that, being quite indifferent
to opinion; a woman who would not have thought it preternaturally sad to
have to walk as a penitent in the streets, with the provision of a very
thick veil to cover her. She had escaped, but the moment she felt herself
free, she was surprised by a sharp twinge of remorse. She summoned her
maid to undress her, and smelt her favourite perfume, and lay in her bed,
to complete her period of rest, closing her eyes there with a child's
faith in pillows. Flying lights and blood-blotches rushed within a span
of her forehead. She met this symptom promptly with a medical receipt;
yet she had no sleep; nor would coffee give her sleep. She shrank from
opium as deleterious to the constitution, and her mind settled on music
as the r