"
How lovely she was with the effort of close attention depicted in
the turn of her head and in her whole face honestly trying to
approve. "And then?" she inquired.
"Then I came in here to face calmly the necessity of doing away
with a human life. I didn't shirk it for a moment. That's what a
short twelvemonth has brought me to. Don't think I am reproaching
you, O blind force! You are justified because you ARE. Whatever
had to happen you would not even have heard of it."
Horror darkened her marvellous radiance. Then her face became
utterly blank with the tremendous effort to understand. Absolute
silence reigned in the house. It seemed to me that everything had
been said now that mattered in the world; and that the world itself
had reached its ultimate stage, had reached its appointed end of an
eternal, phantom-like silence. Suddenly Dona Rita raised a warning
finger. I had heard nothing and shook my head; but she nodded hers
and murmured excitedly,
"Yes, yes, in the fencing-room, as before."
In the same way I answered her: "Impossible! The door is locked
and Therese has the key." She asked then in the most cautious
manner,
"Have you seen Therese to-night?"
"Yes," I confessed without misgiving.
Pages:
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415