"I heard all you said to her the other night;" she continued, advancing yet a step closer to his side--"I followed you,--and I listened. I was well-nigh mad with jealousy--I thought--I feared--you loved her,--but I was wrong. I never do thank God for anything,--but I thanked God that night that I was wrong! She was not made for you--I am! Meet me outside her house, where the great white rose-tree is in bloom--gather one,--one of those little autumnal roses and give it to me--I shall understand it as a signal--a signal that I may come to you to-morrow night and not be cursed or repulsed, but loved,--loved!--ah Lucio! promise me!--one little rose!--the symbol of an hour's love!--then let me die; I shall have had all I ask of life!" With a sudden swift movement, she flung herself upon his breast, and circling her arms about his neck, lifted her face to his. The moonbeams showed me her eyes alit with rapture, her lips trembling with passion, her bosom heaving, ... the blood surged up to my brain, and a red mist swam before my sight, ... would Lucio yield? Not he!--he loosened her desperate hands from about his throat, and forced her back, holding her at arm's length. "Woman, false and accurséd!" he said in tones that were sonorous and terrific--"You know not what you seek! All that you ask of life shall be yours in death!--this is the law,--therefore beware what demands you make lest they be too fully granted! A rose from the cottage of Mavis Clare?--a rose from the garden of Eden!--they are one and the same to me! Not for my gathering or yours! Love and joy? For the unfaithful there is no love,--for the impure there is no joy. Add no more to the measure of my hatred and vengeance!--Go while there is yet time,--go and front the destiny you have made for yourself--for nothing can alter it! And as for me, whom you love,--before whom you have knelt in idolatrous worship--" and a low fierce laugh escaped him--"why,--restrain your feverish desires, fair fiend!--have patience!--we shall meet ere long!" I could not bear the scene another moment, and springing from my hiding-place, I dragged my wife away from him and flung myself between them. "Let me defend you, Lucio, from the pertinacities of this wanton!" I cried with a wild burst of laughter--"An hour ago I thought she was my wife,--I find her nothing but a purchased chattel, who seeks a change of masters!" XXXI For one instant we all three stood facing each other,--I breathless and mad with fury,--Lucio calm and disdainful,--my wife staggering back from me, half-swooning with fear. In an access of black rage, I rushed upon her and seized her in my arms.