himself up to you.
He surrendered every secret of his soul. And when your great hour came
you were ready. You met it as you had always intended. 'At the top of
his hopes he shall fall,' you said."

Roma's heart was beating as if it would burst its bounds.

"He _has_ fallen. Thanks to you, this enemy of civil society, this
slanderer of women, is down. Then the Pope too! And the confession to
the Reverend Father! Who but a woman could have thought of a thing like
that?---making your denunciation so defensible, so pardonable, so
plausible, so inevitable! What skill! What patience! What diplomacy! And
what will and nerve too! Who shall say now that women are incapable of
great things?"

The Baron had thrown open his overcoat, revealing the broad expanse of
his shirt-front, crossed by the glittering collar of the Annunziata, and
was promenading the hearthrug without a thought of his peril.

"The journals of half Europe will have accounts of the failure of the
'Great Plot.' There was another plot, my dear, which did not fail.
Europe will hear of that also, and by to-morrow morning the world will
know what a woman may do to punish the man who traduces and degrades
her!"

"Why don't I do it?" thought Roma. She was fingering the revolver on the
bureau behind her, and breathing fast and audibly.

"You shall have everything back, my dear. Carriages, jewellery,
apartments, exactly as you parted with them. I have kept all under my
own control, and in a single day you can be reinstated."

Roma's palpitating heart was hurting her.

"But won't you sit down, my child? I have something to tell you. It is
important news. The Baroness is dead. Yes, she died on Saturday, poor
soul. Should I play the hypocrite and weep? Why should I? For fifteen
years a cruel law, which I dare not attempt to repeal by divorce in a
Catholic country, has tied me to a living corpse. Shall I pretend to
mourn because my burden has fallen away?... Roma, sit down, my dear;
don't continue to stand there.... Roma, I am free, and we can now carry
out our marriage, as we always hoped and intended."

"Now!" thought Roma, moving a little forward.

"Ah, don't be afraid of anything. I am not afraid, and you needn't be
afraid either. Certainly rumour has coupled our names already. But what
matter about that? No one shall insult you, whatever has occurred.
Wherever I go you shall go too. If they cannot do without me they shall
not do without you, and in spite of