"Beate sleeps in the second room," said Giulia, "she does not hear us! We will not excite ourselves--one calm word! An unhappy fate has brought us together, it should never have happened. Our paths led far asunder, but the indissoluble bond remains; it is cruel to tie up my soul with it, it is indissoluble there, indissoluble also for me here, because I dare not venture forth with this life-long lie, without forfeiting my future happiness. But you would not be separated, although to do so lay in your power. I beg, I implore you, do not let your old right interfere in my life. I was always your friend, I will remain so, but upon my knees I implore you, grant me the bliss of this true love. I ask nothing but silence, do not make him miserable who hazarded his life for me. Is it then so great a sacrifice not to utter words which would plunge two people into calamity? Is it impossible to resign a dreamed-of possession, a right that is dead?" "A dreamed-of possession?" shouted the Italian, "the real right will still find its protection in the world, and when I see you thus before me, in all the magic of your charms, I long to press you to my heart and to rejoice in my beautiful possession; my blood surges up within me, like the fire-spring of Salfatora. I am no Don Juan who breaks at night into the sanctuary of the house, I am no adulterer, no seducer; I am the husband, and that word is like a king's crown and sceptre, before which all the nation bows. The law would drive you into my arms with rods, if you refuse, because to me is given power over you." "Away, do not touch me!" "And if I do? I am safe from your cries for help!" "That you are not," cried Giulia in supreme excitement, "not even if I must let my shame resound through the house with the alarm bell! Rather than rest in your arms, rather than follow you and obey that vile control which your right and will exercise, rather would I fall crushed upon my knees before every one, confess the incredible, pray for mercy, and then seek and find death. You know me! I dare do much, I dare do what is unheard of! With bold hand I will rob myself of my own happiness. He who dares that is prepared for all! Beside the summit there is an abyss and no other path--least of all no other path in common with you!" Giulia's wild determination made an impression upon Baluzzi; he knew those convulsively closed lips, those knitted eyebrows, those rigid glances; he knew that at such moments she was capable of extremities. What, then, was left to him? The sensation of gratified revenge, a mere shadow of recollection--but not the bliss of the rack, and what his passion, his avarice, might perhaps still expect of the future, would then be buried for evermore. He stopped, and hesitated.