Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/38

Rh courier whom you favour with interviews at an hour yon think untimely for lovers less distinguished?" Her glance swept over him with the grand amazement of one whom no living man ever arraigned. He could not tell whether his insult moved her one whit for sake of the man whom his jealousy seized as his rival; but he saw that it had for ever mined all hope for himself. She looked at him calmly, with a contempt that cut him like a knife.

"I did not know that my wines were so strong or your head so weak. If you transgress the limits of courtesy, I must transgress those of hospitality, and—dismiss you."

He knew that it was as vain to seek to move or sway her from that serene indifference, as to dash himself against the Capri rocks in striving to uproot them; yet in his desperation he lost all the keen and subtle tact, the fine inscrutable ability, that had never failed him save with her. He laid his hands on the sweeping folds of her dress, with the same gesture of entreaty that Erceldoune had used in the unconscious vehemence of his prayer.

"Idalia—stay! Take heed before you refuse my love, for love it is, God help me."