to the last.

Tears rose to his throat and choked him. He opened his mouth to speak,
but at first he could not utter a word. At length he fumbled at his
breast, tore at his shirt front, so that his loose neckerchief became
untied, and finally drew from an inner pocket a crumpled paper.

"Look!" he said with a kind of gasp.

She saw at a glance what the paper was, and dared not look at it a
second time. It was the warrant. She dropped into a chair with bowed
head and humble attitude, as if trying to sink out of sight.

"Tell me you know nothing about it, Roma."

She covered her face with both hands and was silent.

"Tell me."

She had expected that he would flame out at her, but his voice was
breaking. She lifted her head and tried to look at him. His eyes were
fixed on her with an expression she had never seen before. She wanted to
speak, and could not do so. Her lip trembled, and she hung her head and
covered her face again, unable to say a word.

By this time he knew full well that she was guilty, but he tried to
persuade himself that she was innocent, to make excuses for her, and to
find her a way out.

"The newspapers say that the warrant was made at your instruction,
Roma--that you were the informer who denounced me. It cannot be true.
Tell me it is not true."

She did not speak.

"Look at the name on it--David Leone. There was only one person in the
world who knew me by that name--only one."

She began to cry beneath her hands.

"I told you everything myself, Roma. It was in this very room, you
remember, the night you came here first. You asked me if I wasn't afraid
to tell you, and I answered no. You couldn't deceive the son of your own
father. It wasn't natural. I was right, wasn't I?"

She felt him take hold of her hand and draw it down from her face.

"Look at the ring on your hand, dear. And look at this one on mine. You
are my wife, Roma. Does a man's wife betray him?"

His voice cracked at every word.

"When we parted you promised that as long as you lived, wherever you
might be, and whatever the world might do with us, you would be faithful
to me to the last. You have kept your promise, haven't you? It isn't
true that you have denounced me to the police."

He paused, but she did not reply, and he dropped her hand, and it fell
like a lifeless thing to her side.

"I know it isn't true, dear, but I want to hear it from your own lips.
One word--only one. Why shouldn't you speak? Say you