Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/231

220 in philosophies and seductions; turn it down for the slaughter-signal, if you see me at his mercy. How free you will be then! But—listen just a little—if he press me too close, we of the south and east have not the northern scorn of a timely thrust, and it will be but in self-defence!"

As he spoke, he drew gently half out of its sheath the blade of a delicate knife that was thrust in his waistband, and let the beams of the sunrise play brightly on the narrow shining steel.

The glitter flashed close beside her. It sent fire and life like an electríc shock through all the icy stillness of her limbs; she rose with a convulsive force; her eyes had the gleam of an opium-drinker's in them, her voice had scarcely a likeness of itself.

"I come, I come; do what you will with me, so that his life escapes you!"