Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/102



"You said you were in my hands," he wondered.

"I expected better treatment at your hands," Anna retorted. "I cannot imagine any better treatment," the bluff soldier king declared. "You say you loved Aeneas and show you loved him. Yet after all I offer you myself. You would be my queen."

"I had rather perish as Dido perished," Anna declared fiercely, "than be your queen."

"You said you believed in making the best of everything." Iarbas reminded her.

"There are some things," Anna told him, "out of which there is no best to make. You care nothing for me. You only want to be king of Carthage."

"I do not need you," Iarbas retorted, "to make myself king of Carthage, Carthage is mine now."

"I am not," said Anna, almost vigorously, her small head erect. "You may control Carthage, you cannot subdue me. You never cared for me, you always loved Dido. The instant she is dead you are for marrying me! I will die before I will be your queen."

"I never cared for you," Iarbas admitted, "until you faced me down and defended that Trojan p."

He stopped, gulped and began again.

"That Trojan prince, Aeneas."