His answer was to seize a large Contagalli vase, standing on a console between the windows and smash it on the tiled floor, then he turned and rushed from the room. Ragna stood looking after him a scornful smile creeping over her frozen face. In that moment she had seen revealed the innermost hideous recesses of the man's soul, the man who was her husband, the father of Beppino. In the silence there rose to her ears the reverberating bang of the _portone_, and the angry beat of his footsteps on the stone pavement outside. After a few days of sullen silence, he appeared before her one evening before dinner, a little box in his hand. It was never his way to offer an apology, but the desire for peace which stood to him for remorse, frequently took the form of material reparation. Never would he, in any circumstances, have admitted himself in the wrong. He opened the box, displaying a ruby ring set with diamonds, saying: "You must admit that I am a generous husband, my dear!" "Thank you," said Ragna, without looking up, "I do not care for it." "Not care for it!" he exclaimed, straightening up suddenly as though struck by some unseen missile. "A nice return I get for all my kindness. Of all the ungrateful--" She raised her eyes slowly and something in their cold, scornful gaze silenced him. He stood uncertainly opening and shutting the box. Meanwhile a thought came to her--why not take the jewel after all? Why not take all that she could get? Life with this man was becoming fast unbearable, and when at last she should be able to endure it no longer, these trinkets might provide her with the means of escape. "If you very much desire it," she said coldly, "I will accept your gift." "I thought you would when you came to think it over. It is a good stone," he said taking up the ring and holding it in the light of the lamp, "and it is worth considerably more than I gave for it. I am not one of your fools who pay the fancy prices of a fashionable jeweller--indeed it is they who come to me for advice, they know I have a good eye for stones, and for a bargain." "So have the Jews," said Ragna, biting her thread, she was sewing a little garment for Beppino. "The Jews!" said Valentini, glaring at her, "what do you mean by that? Of course you are so accustomed to the society of princes and grandees that you think yourself above prudence and wise expenditure. You are a fool, which of your princes would have done for you what I have done?"