know nothing of
this warrant. Say that somebody else knew David Leone. It may be so--I
cannot remember. Say ... say anything. Don't you see I will believe you
whatever you say, Roma?"

Roma could control herself no longer.

"I know quite well it is impossible for you to forgive me, David."

"Forgive!"

"But if I could explain...."

"Explain? What can there be to explain? Did you denounce me to the
magistrate?"

"If you could only know what happened...."

"Did you denounce me to the magistrate?"

She looked with frightened eyes at the bedroom door, and then dropped to
her knees.

"Have pity upon me."

"Did you denounce me to the magistrate?"

"Yes."

His pale face became ashen.

"Then it's true," he said in a voice that hardly passed his throat.
"What my friends have been saying all along is true. They warned me
against you from the first, but I wouldn't believe them. I was a fool,
and _this_ is my reward."

So saying he crushed the warrant in his hand and flung it at her feet.

Roma could bear no more. Making a great call on her resolution, she
rose, turned towards the bedroom door, and, speaking in a loud voice in
order that he who was within might hear, she said:

"David, I don't want to excuse myself or to blame anybody else, whoever
it may be, and however wickedly he may have acted. But, from my soul and
before God, I tell you that if I denounced you I did it for the best."

"The best!"

He laughed bitterly, but she forced herself to go on.

"When you went away you warned me that your enemies could be merciless.
They _have_ been merciless. First, they tempted me with the fear of
poverty. I had been accustomed to wealth, comfort, luxury. Look round
you, David--they are gone. Did I ever regret them? Never! I was rich
enough in your love, and I would not have sacrificed that for a queen's
crown."

She looked up at his tortured face and saw that it was full of scorn,
but still she struggled on.

"Then they tempted me with jealousy. The forged letter which killed
Bruno was intended to poison me. Did I believe it? No! I knew you loved
me, and if you didn't, if you had deceived me, that made no difference.
_I_ loved _you_, and even if I lost you I should always love you,
whatever happened."

Again she looked up into his face with her glistening eyes. It was not
anger she saw there now, but an expression of bewilderment and of pain.

"Last of all, they tempted me with love itself. The treach