ld fight with all the consequences the
Baron had foretold.

"Roma," said Rossi, "forgive me for putting the question, but a
falsehood like this, affecting the character of a good woman, ought to
be stopped in the slanderer's throat. Don't be afraid, dear. You know I
will believe you before anybody in the world. What the man says is a
lie, isn't it?"

Roma stood for a moment looking in a helpless way from Rossi to the
Baron, and from the Baron back to Rossi. She made an effort to speak,
but at first she could not do so. At length she said:

"Can't you trust me, David?"

"Trust you? Answer me on this one point and I will trust you on all the
rest. Say the man speaks falsely, and I will stake my life on your
word."

Roma did not reply, and the Baron tried to laugh.

"If the lady can deny what I say, let her do so. If she cannot, you must
come to your own conclusions."

"Deny it, Roma! Deny it, and I will fling the man's insult in his face."

"David, if I could tell you everything...."

"Everything! It's only one thing I want to know, Roma."

"If you had received my letters addressed to England...."

"Letters? What matter about letters now. Don't you understand, dear?
This gentleman says that before you married me you ... had already
belonged to him. That's what he means, and it's false, isn't it?"

"My mouth is closed. If I could say anything one way or other...."

"Yes or no--that is all that is necessary."

Roma looked up at him with a pleading expression, but seeing nothing in
his face except the magistrate who was interrogating her, she turned her
back and hung her head, and cried like a helpless child.

Rossi laid hold of her arm, twisted her about, and looked into her eyes.

"Crying, Roma? You don't mean to tell me that I am to believe what the
man says? Deny it! For God's sake deny it!"

"I ... I cannot ... I cannot speak," she stammered, and then there was a
dead silence.

When Rossi spoke again his face was dark as a thundercloud, and his
voice hoarse as a raven's.

"If that is so, there is nothing more to say."

She looked up at him with a pathetic remonstrance, but he met her eyes
with the gaze of a relentless judge who had tried and condemned her.

"I was not to blame, David--I swear before God I was not."

"Yet you allowed me to go on believing that falsehood. The woman who
could do a thing like that could do anything. She could pretend to be
poor, pretend to be tempted, pretend...."