This expression in his eyes roused her pride.
"But you will see that it can be!" she retorted with a touch of irony which was the height of cruelty.
He stood frozen for a moment, gazing at her with intense anguish, then he fell on his knees at her feet, with clasped hand, imploring her:
"For God's sake, do not kill me! Do not kill me!"
Clementina's face softened, and her voice broke a little.
"Come, Mundo," said she, "do not be a baby. Get up. This had to come. You will find other women far more worthy than I."
But the young man held her knees clasped, kissing them in a frenzy of grief, his whole frame shaken by sobs.
"This is horrible, horrible, horrible!" he kept saying. "Oh! what have I done that you should kill me with misery?"
"Come, come," she said, gently stroking his hair. "Get up, be reasonable. Do you not see that this is ridiculous?"
"What do I care?" he cried, his face hidden in her silk skirts. "For you I would be ridiculous in the eyes of the whole world."