She interrupted him there. 'You sought? You sought?' Her voice held bewilderment, unbelief, and even some anger. 'Why should you desire to save or serve me? If I could believe you, I must account you impertinent. You were a messenger, no more.' 'Was I no more when I disclosed to you the true aims of these men and the perils of your association with them?' 'Aye, you were more,' she said bitterly. 'But what were you?' 'Your servant, madonna,' he answered simply. 'Ah, yes. I had forgotten. My servant. Sent by Providence, was it not?' 'You are bitter, lady,' said Bellarion. 'Am I?' She turned at last to look at him. But his face was no more than a faint white blur. 'Perhaps I find you too sweet to be real.' He sighed. 'The rest of my tale will hardly change that opinion. Is it worth while continuing?' He spoke without any heat, a little wistfully. 'It should be entertaining if not convincing.' 'For your entertainment, then: what you could not do without destroying yourself was easily possible to me.' And he told her of his pretended petition, giving the Regent the names of those who plotted against his life. He saw her clutch her breast, caught the gasp of dread and dismay that broke from her lips. 'You betrayed them!' 'Was it not what you announced that you would do if they did not abandon their plan of murder? I was your deputy, no more. When I presented myself as Facino Cane's adopted son I was readily believed--because the Regent cared little whether it were true or not, since in me he perceived the very agent that he needed.' 'Ah, now at last we have something that does not strain belief.' 'Will it strain belief that the Regent was already fully informed of this conspiracy?' 'What!' 'Why else should he have trusted or believed me? Of his own knowledge he knew that what I told him was true.' 'He knew and he held his hand?' Again the question was made scornful by unbelief. 'Because he lacked evidence that you, and, through you, your brother, were parties to the plot. What to him are Barbaresco's shabby crew? It is the Marquis Gian Giacomo who must be removed in such a manner as not to impair the Lord Regent's credit. To gather evidence am I now sent.' She tore an ostrich-plume from her fan in her momentary passion. 'You do not hesitate to confess how you betray each in turn; Barbaresco to the Regent; the Regent to me; and now, no doubt, me to the Regent.' 'As for the last, madonna, to betray you I need not now be here. I could have supplied the Regent with all the evidence he needs against you at the same time that I supplied the evidence against the others.' She was silent, turning it over in her mind. And because her mind was acute, she saw the proof his words afforded. But because afraid, she mistrusted proof. 'It may be part of the trap,' she complained. 'If it were not, why should you remain after denouncing my friends? The aims you pretend would have been fully served by that.' His answer was prompt and complete.