"Roma," said Rossi at last, while tears filled his eyes and choked his
voice, "when I escaped from the police I came here to avenge myself; but
if you say it was your love that led you to denounce me...."
"I do say so."
"Your love, and nothing but your love...."
"Nothing! Nothing!"
"Though I am betrayed and fallen, and may be banished or condemned to
death, yet...."
Her heart swelled and throbbed. She held out her arms to him.
"David!" she cried, and at the next moment she was clasped to his
breast.
Again there was a faint sound from the adjoining room.
"The woman lies," said a voice behind them.
The Baron stood in the bedroom door.
VII
The Baron's impulse on going into the bedroom had been merely to escape
from one who must be a runaway prisoner, and therefore little better
than a madman, whose worst madness would be provoked by his own
presence; but when he realised that Rossi was self-possessed, and even
magnanimous in his hour of peril, the Baron felt ashamed of his
hiding-place, and felt compelled to come out. In spite of his pride he
had been forced to overhear the conversation, and he was humiliated by
the generosity of the betrayed man, but what humbled him most was the
clear note of the woman's love.
Knight of the Annunziata! Cousin of the King! President of the Council!
Dictator! These things had meant something to him an hour ago. What were
they now?
The agony of the Baron's jealousy was intolerable. For the first time in
his life his ideas, usually so clear and exact, became confused. Roma
was lost to him. He was going mad.
He looked at the revolver which he had snatched up when Roma let it
fall, examined it, made sure it was loaded, cocked it, put it in the
right-hand pocket of his overcoat, and then opened the door.
The two in the other room did not at first see him. He spoke, and their
arms slackened and they stood apart.
After a moment of silence Rossi spoke. "Roma," he said, "what is this
gentleman doing here?"
The Baron laughed. "Wouldn't it be more reasonable to ask what you are
doing here, sir?" he asked.
Then trying to put into logical sequence the confused ideas which were
besieging his tormented brain, he said, "I understand that this
apartment belongs now to the lady; the lady belongs to me, and when she
denounced you to the police it was merely in fulfilment of a plan we
concocted together on the day you insulted both of us in your speech in
the piazza."