uilty of such a disgraceful action," said
she.

With these words she turned her back on me and went out.

I could not help confessing to myself that she was in the right; I could
not bring myself to commit such a baseness. She had made me reasonable in
a few words:

"I don't love you." There was no reply to this, and I felt I had no claim
on her.

Rather it was she who might complain of me; what right had I to spy over
her? I could not accuse her of deceiving me; she was free to do what she
liked with herself. My best course was clearly to be silent.

I dressed myself hastily, and went to the Exchange, where I heard that a
vessel was sailing for Fiume the same day.

Fiume is just opposite Ancona on the other side of the gulf. From Fiume
to Trieste the distance is forty miles, and I decided to go by that
route.

I went aboard the ship and took the best place, said good-bye to the
consul, paid Mardocheus, and packed my trunks.

Leah heard that I was going the same day, and came and told me that she
could not give me back my lace and my silk stockings that day, but that I
could have them by the next day.

"Your father," I replied coolly, "will hand them all over to the Venetian
consul, who will send them to me at Trieste."

Just as I was sitting down to dinner, the captain of the boat came for my
luggage with a sailor. I told him he could have my trunk, and that I
would bring the rest aboard whenever he liked to go.

"I intend setting out an hour before dusk."

"I shall be ready."

When Mardocheus heard where I was going he begged me to take charge of a
small box and a letter he wanted to send to a friend.

"I shall be delighted to do you this small service."

At dinner Leah sat down with me and chattered as usual, without troubling
herself about my monosyllabic answers.

I supposed she wished me to credit her with calm confidence and
philosophy, while I looked upon it all as brazen impudence.

I hated and despised her. She had inflamed my passions, told me to my
face she did not love me, and seemed to claim my respect through it all.
Possibly she expected me to be grateful for her remark that she believed
me incapable of betraying her to her father.

As she drank my Scopolo she said there were several bottles left, as well
as some Muscat.

"I make you a present of it all," I replied, "it will prime you up for
your nocturnal orgies."

She smiled and said I had had a gratuitous sight of a spectacle