Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/234

223 "Pardon me, Monsignore! I am not of your communion; call me simply Madame de Vassalis."

The Prince-Bishop made a gentle deprecatory gesture with his white and elegant hands.

"Even those who have strayed from us we still hope to reclaim; and I speak as beseems me in the name of the Church. You have thought 'there is no more to be said,' since by force you have been brought within our authority. You err greatly; there are many things."

Her old superb, disdainful smile came on Idalia's face; the entrance of the churchman had roused in her all her native pride, all her worldly brilliance, all her royal defiance; she knew well enough with whom she had to deal, and the assumption of authority awoke in her all her dignity and dauntlessness.

"Many things?" she repeated, tranquilly. "Possibly! You would wish to know from me—your captive—the secrets of my party, the names of my associates, the securities of my wealth, many other matters that you consider have become yours by right through my conquest?"

Giulio Villaflor looked at her curiously, a little bewildered.

"It is so, my daughter," he said, blandly. "We would rather, you will be sure, receive these—our