everything you shall be received
everywhere."

"Is that all you had to say?" said Roma.

"Not all. There is something else, and I couldn't wait for the
newspapers to tell you. The King has appointed me Dictator for six
months. That means that you will be more courted than the Queen. What a
revenge! The women who have been turning their backs upon you will bend
their backs before you. You will break down every barrier. You will...."

"Wait," said Roma.

The Baron had been approaching her, and she lifted her hand.

"You expect me to acquiesce in this lie?"

"What lie, my child?"

"That I denounced David Rossi in order to destroy him. It is true that I
did denounce him--unhappy woman that I am--but you know perfectly why I
did it. I did it because I was forced to do it. _You_ forced me."

At the sound of her own voice, her eyes had begun to fill.

"And now you ask me to pretend that it was all done from an evil motive,
and you offer me the rewards of guilt. Do you think I'm a murderer that
you can offer me the price of blood? Have you any shame? You come here
to ask me to marry you, knowing that I am married already--here of all
places, in the house of my husband."

Her eyes were blinded with tears, but her voice thickened with anger.

"My child," said the Baron, "if I have asked you to acquiesce in the
idea that what you did was from a certain motive it was only to spare
you pain. I thought it would be easier for you to do so now, things
being as they are. It was only going back to your original purpose,
forgetting all that has intervened."

His voice softened, and he said in a low tone: "If _I_ am so much to
blame for what has been done, perhaps it was because you were first of
all at fault! At the beginning my one offence consisted in agreeing to
your proposal. It was the _statesman_ who committed that error, and the
_man_ has suffered for it ever since. You know nothing of jealousy, my
child--how can you?--but its pains are as the pains of hell."

He tried to approach her once more.

"Come, dear, try to be yourself again. Forget this moment of
fascination, and rise afresh to your old strength and wisdom. I am
willing to forget ... whatever has happened--I don't ask what. I am
ready to wipe it all away, just as if it had never been."

In spite of his soft words and gentle tones, Roma was gazing at him with
an aversion she had never felt before for any human being.

"Have no qualms about your marriage