Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/225

214 At last she raised her head, and turned it full upon him. As the reddened glow of sunrise flickered on it, it was dark, and cold, and resolute, with an exceeding strength and an absolute despair.

"For once you have shown me duty, and saved me from a crime. My hand shall not touch his again."

"Because you will not"

"Because your guilt is on me."

"And yet you were willing to lose all your riches, and your power, and your victories, and your pleasures, for this one man?"

"I am so willing."

"Then it is"

"That you have shown me what would be my sin to him. You cannot be betrayed. He shall not be."

"You mean"

She turned on him ere he could speak with the swift, lithe, terrible grace of a stag hunted and bounded into a fierceness born of sheer torture, and wholly alien to its nature.

"Silence! or I shall forget what you are, and let him take his vengeance on you. Can you not be content? You led me into cruelty and error a thousand times under the masking of fair colours