help, he is murdering me," shrieked the woman, at the last paroxysm of wrath, tearing her hair and rolling on the carpet.
For an instant Balsamo considered her with mingled rage and pity, the latter overcoming the other.
"Come, come, Lorenza, return to your senses, and be calm. A day will come when you will be rewarded amply for what you have suffered, or fancy."
"Imprisoned," screamed the Italian, "and beaten."
"These are times to try the mind. You are mad, but you shall be cured."
"Better throw me into a madhouse at once; shut me up in a real jail."
"No, you have warned me what you would do against me."
"Then," said the infuriate, "let me have death straightway."
Springing up with the suppleness and rapidity of the wild beast, she leaped to break her head against the wall. But Balsamo had merely to stretch out his hands toward her and utter a single word rather with his will than with his lips, to stop her dead. She stopped, indeed, reeled and dropped sleep-stricken in the magnetiser's arms.