Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/19

 'Yes. Tell him I will accept no gift from a man who loves you!'

'He does not love me. Nor can I tell him that.'

'Take them back to him, though they are the most precious things on earth. He shall not despise me more than he does already, and I will owe him nothing. Tell him that whenever, if ever, I am sure you do not love me, then I will rid you of the burden of me without his help. That will be easy enough. Gorgona is on the sea yonder, and death is at hand in every lagoon and pool.'

A shudder went over her.

'You know well that I love you,' she said gravely; then without more words she went into her chamber.

With the dawn she rose, after a long dreamless night's rest, and went out towards the mountains. She put the pistols in her girdle, no thought of disobedience to him ever passed through her mind.

The dawn was red and very cold, the geranium hue of the sky glowing through the whiteness of mist as it had done the previous day; nothing is more beautiful than these winter dawns, so rosy, so luminous,