"Roma!"
Her eyelids trembled, but she tried to laugh.
"Yes, dear. True! Not immediately. Oh, no! not immediately. But signed
and sealed, you know, and not to be put aside that anybody may be happy
much longer."
She was laughing almost gaily. But all the same she was watching him
closely, and now that her word was spoken she suddenly became conscious
of a secret desire which she had not suspected. She wanted him to
contradict her, to tell her she was quite wrong, to convince and defeat
her.
"Poor little me! Pity, isn't it? It would have been so sweet to go on a
little longer--especially after this reconciliation. And when one has
kept one's heart under bolt and bar so long...."
Her sad gaiety was breaking down. "But it's better so, isn't it?"
He did not reply.
"Ah, yes, it's better so when you come to think of it."
"It's terrible!" said Rossi.
"Don't say that. It's a thing of every day. Here, there, everywhere. God
wouldn't allow it to go on if it were terrible."
"It's bitterly cruel for all that."
"Not so cruel as life. Not nearly. For instance, if I lived you would
have to put me away, and that would be harder to bear than death--far
harder."
"My darling! What are you saying?"
"It's true, dear. You know it's true. God can forgive a woman even if
she's a sinner, but the world can't if she's only a victim of sin. It's
part of the cruelty of things, but there's no use repining."
"Roma," said Rossi, "I take God to witness that if that were all that
stood between us nothing and nobody should separate you and me. I should
tell the world that you had every virtue and every heroism, and without
you I could do nothing."
Her eyes filled with a fresh joy.
"You set me too high still, dear. Yet you know that I was far too small
and weak for your great work. That was why I failed you at the end. It
wasn't my fault that I betrayed you..."
"Don't speak of my betrayal. I thank God for it, and see now that it was
the best that could have happened."
She closed her eyes. "Is it your own voice, dearest? Really yours? Hush!
I shall wake and the dream will pass."
A little jet from his heart of flame burst out in spite of his warning
brain, and he was carried away for the moment.