r
friend. If he still wishes to possess her in spite of herself, he
may intimidate her, he may threaten to reveal all to her husband.
This would make her miserable, and perhaps in the long run, her
will being broken, it might even make her yield. Or the man may
really tell her husband in order to insult and outrage both of
them. _If he does so, where is she? Is her husband to believe her
story then?_

"To meet these dangers let her speak out now. Let her trust her
husband's love and tell him everything. If he is a man he will
think, 'Only her purity has prompted her to tell me,' and he will
love her more than ever. Some momentary spasm he may feel. Every
man wishes to believe that the flower he plucks is flawless. But
his higher nature will conquer his vanity and he will say, 'She
loves me, I love her, she is innocent, and if any blow is to be
struck at her it must go through me.'

"My love to you, dearest. Your friend must be a true woman, and it
was very sweet of you to be so tender with her. It was noble of
you to be severe with her too, and to make her go through
purgatorial fires. That is what good women always do with the
injured of their own sex. It is a kind of pledge and badge of
their purity, and it is a safeguard and shield, whatever the
unthinking may say. I love you for your severity to the poor
soiled dove, my dear one, just as much as I love you for your
tenderness. It shows me how rightly I judged the moral elevation
of your soul, your impeccability, your spirit of fire and heart of
gold. Until we meet again, my darling, D. R."

XIII

"MY DEAR DAVID ROSSI,--All day long I've been carrying your
letter round like a reliquary, taking a peep at it in cabs, and
even, when I dare, in omnibuses and the streets.

"What you say about Bruno has put me in a fever, and I have
written to the Director-General for permission to visit the
prison. Even Lawyer Napoleon is of opinion that Bruno is being
made a victim of that secret inquisition. No Holy Inquisition was
ever more unscrupulous. Lawyer N. says the authorities in Italy
have inherited the traditions of a bad regime. To do evil to
prevent others from doing it is horrible. But in this case it is
doing evil to prevent others from doing good. I am satisfied