"How long is it since you received this message?" she said.
"On the night you came here first."
"And when I asked you to come to my house on that ... that useless
errand, you were thinking of ... of my father's request as well?"
"Yes."
"You have known all this about the Baron for a month, yet you have said
nothing. Why have you said nothing?"
"You wouldn't have believed me at first, whatever I had said against
him."
"But afterwards?"
"Afterwards I had another reason."
"Did it concern me?"
"Yes."
"And now?"
"Now that I have to part from you I am compelled to tell you what he
is."
"But if you had known that all this time he has been trying to use
somebody against you...."
"That would have made no difference."
She lifted her head, and a look of fire, almost of fierceness, came into
her face, but she only said, with a little hysterical cry, as if her
throat were swelling: "Come to me to-morrow, David! Be sure you come! If you don't come I
shall never, never forgive you! But you will come! You will! You will!"
And then, as if afraid of breaking out into sobs, she turned quickly and
hurried away.
"She can never fall into that man's hands now," he thought. And then he
lit his lamp and sat down to his work, but the light was gone, and the
night had fallen on him.
XII Next morning David Rossi had not yet risen when some one knocked at his
door. It was Bruno. The great fellow looked nervous and troubled, and he
spoke in a husky whisper.
"You're not going to Donna Roma's to-day, sir?"
"Why not, Bruno?"
"Have you seen her bust of yourself?"
"Hardly at all."
"Just so. My case, too. She has taken care of that--locking it up every
night, and getting another caster to cast it. But I saw it the first
morning after she began, and I know what it is."
"What is it, Bruno?"
"You'll be angry again, sir."
"What is it?"
"Judas--that's what it is, sir; the study for Judas in the fountain for
the Municipality."
"Is that all?"
"All?... But it's a caricature, a spiteful caricature! And you sat four
days and never even looked at it! I tell you it's disgusting, sir.
Simply disgusting. It's been done on purpose, too. When I think of it I
forget all you said, and I hate the woman as much as ever. And now she
is to have a reception, and you are going to it, just to help her to
have her laugh. Don't go, sir! Take the advice of a fool, and don't
go!"