He would have eagerly denied conjecture, but it would not do to deny a confidence; besides he was secretly much relieved at this new version of things. He had been afraid that Madame had been playing with him; it appeared now that he had been playing with her. What had happened yesterday was merely a charming little feminine _revanche_. He began to find the part he was playing more attractive. “It is true,” he said at last, “your husband told me that your marriage was not happy--and to begin with perhaps I had the idea that it lay with you to make it so. Forgive me, this idea soon passed. It passed before the affair of the other day showed me the incredible _lacheté_ of Raoul. Permit me to say that his behavior shocked me to the heart; but before this shock took place I had learned in what light to consider you. Believe me, I have not been playing with you. I am in earnest, in terrible earnest.” She turned her eyes to his. They were not beautiful eyes like Rose’s--but he did not know them so well, besides she used them better. “You are really in earnest, really, Léon?” she asked him searchingly. He sprang to his feet, but with a wave of her hand she motioned to him to remain where he was. “I wonder,” she said very softly. “I do not want to be twice deceived, to be deceived once is to go broken-winged through life, but to be deceived twice, could one live at all?” “I swear that I have not deceived you--that I will never deceive you!” cried Léon passionately. “The feeling that I have for you is real--it is intense.” Still he meant to stay at Capri; he hadn’t any idea of doing anything else. “You are prepared,” she asked him, “to prove your words to me? You realize if I believe them what is at stake for me--and if you realize that, do you not think that I have the right to ask you for a proof?” “You shall not ask me for one!” he cried. “Rather I will give you _all_ the proofs in my power--one or a dozen--what you will--you have only to ask!” “You are very generous,” she said with her pretty irony. “One will be enough. I want you to-night to take me to Naples. I cannot stay in Capri until my husband returns. I will not return alone to France. It appears that we made a mistake in not going to Naples for our honeymoon. Let us then--you and I--rectify this mistake.” Léon said nothing. He gripped at the little wooden balcony railing with both hands, and stared with blank eyes at the laughing sea. Leave Capri! Leave Rose! His heart shuddered within him--with every honest fiber of his nature, and he had many honest fibers in his nature, he loved Rose. He did not love the woman before him--but he had sought what she offered--how could he refuse it? It was true he had expected to make his own terms, but this would not be very easy to explain to her. Still, he tried hard to keep the situation in hand.