Again he tugged at her restraining hands.
"Be careful girl—when I am through with them you shall have your turn—who do you think you are to interfere with your master?"
He wrenched his arm free with a force that sent her reeling and once more the foil descended.
She flew at him again, her face blanched, her eyes blazing, a new note in her voice.
"Have a care yourself!" she shrieked. "Murderer! Assassin! Help! Help! Murder!"
"Stop that, you fool!" he snarled, but she cried the louder, and he dropped the children to choke her cries.
The white scared faces of Nando and Assunta peering in at the door brought him to his senses and he flung the girl off.
"You pack of fools!" he growled, "take that hysterical idiot away and leave this room! How dare you come here without my orders?"
But Assunta was already by Carolina's side, bending over the children, whose loud sobbing filled the room.
"Take your silly face from that door, Nando! Dio mi strabenedica if I don't throw the whole crew of you into the street! Am I to have no peace in my own home?"