Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/100

Rh changed it. It is through him that I became one of the richest women in Europe; much is gone, but great weaJth still remains with me. Can you not fancy what I was nine years ago, with the world before me, untried, unknown, with passion untouched, with ambition still but in its sweet vague ideals, with innocence as soilless as those lilies, and courage fearless as the courage of the young eagles? Can you marvel that I believed I should have the sovereignty of Semiramis? Can you not understand how easily I credited those who for their own ends deluded me to the belief?" Her face darkened as she spoke, and her voice sank with a thrill of hate in it. He caught it, and his own voice took her tone.

"Tell me who they were. If they be living "

The menace recalled her from the past to the present.

"No. That is one of many things I cannot tell you yet, if ever. From no love of mystery—I abhor it—but from a brutal inexorable necessity, as little to be escaped from as the destiny of the ancients. We know that there is no such thing as destiny, but we make as hard a task-master for ourselves out of our own deeds. Of my childhood I can speak freely, but from Julian Vassalis' death dates the