‘Better end them here, at once!’ said Pelagia, with a gesture of despair, and dashed herself down on the floor.
Philammon was about to lift her up, when Miriam caught him by the arm, and in a hurried whisper—‘Are you mad? Will you ruin your own purpose? Why did you tell her this? Why did you not wait—give her hope—time to collect herself—time to wean herself from her lover, instead of terrifying and disgusting her at the outset, as you have done? Have you a man’s heart in you? No word of comfort for that poor creature, nothing but hell, hell, hell—See to your own chance of hell first! It is greater than you fancy!’
‘It cannot be greater than I fancy!’
‘Then see to it. For her, poor darling!—why, even we Jews, who know that all you Gentiles are doomed to Gehenna alike, have some sort of hope for such a poor untaught creature as that.’
‘And why is she untaught? Wretch that you are. You have had the training of her! You brought her up to sin and shame! You drove from her recollection the faith in which she was baptized!’
‘So much the better for her, if the recollection of it is to make her no happier than it does already. Better to wake unexpectedly in Gehenna when you die, than to endure over and above the dread of it here. And as for leaving her untaught, on your own showing she has been taught too much already. Wiser it would be in you to curse your parents for having had her baptized, than me for giving her ten years’ pleasure before she goes to the pit of Tophet. Come now, don’t be angry with me. The old Jewess is your friend, revile her as you will. She shall marry this Goth.’
‘An Arian heretic!’
‘She shall convert him and make a Catholic of him, if you like. At all events, if you wish to win her, you must win her my way. You have had your chance, and spoiled it. Let me have mine. Pelagia, darling! Up, and be a woman! We will find a philtre downstairs to give that ungrateful man, that shall make him more mad about you, before a day is over, than ever you were about him.’
‘No!’ said Pelagia, looking up. ‘No love-potions! No poisons!’
‘Poisons, little fool! Do you doubt the old woman’s skill? Do you think I shall make him lose his wits, as Callisphyra did to her lover last year, because she would trust to old Megaera’s drugs, instead of coming to me!’