"Well, Kitty, since you love him, do you not wish to beg for him?" she began again, slowly emphasizing her words. "Look, I have his happiness in my hands. I can crush it, or bid it live and flourish, according to my pleasure. This absolute power is priceless to me, of course, and yet I can hardly resist the temptation to resign it, chiefly to test the strength of what is so vaunted as true love. Suppose I were to place this ring in your hands, with the right to dispose of it as you please,—understand me, I myself should from that moment resign all claim, all right of protest,—would you, in order that Bruck might from this time be free to choose, submit to any conditions that I should impose?"
Kitty had involuntarily pressed her clasped hands tightly to her throbbing breast,—there was a terrible conflict going on within her. "I will comply with any even the hardest conditions immediately, if only I may free him from your toils," came hoarsely but resolutely from her lips.
"Not too fast, my child. You might possibly destroy the happiness of your own life by too ready a self-sacrifice."
The young girl paused for a moment, and put one hand up to her aching head. Evidently, strong though she was, one support after another was failing her, her youthful ardour, the elastic force that breeds self-reliance, faith in her own power of self-conquest: her will alone remained firm. "I know what I mean; there is no need for reflection," she said.
Flora held the orange-spray before her face as if she were inhaling the fragrance of the artificial blossoms. "What if his choice—perhaps only to humiliate me—fell upon yourself?" she asked, looking askance at her young sister.
Kitty's breath failed her. "It never will,—he never liked me!"
"True. But suppose he should tell you that he loves you, the pledge of his freedom would scarcely be safe in your hands, I am afraid. Some day he would woo his beloved, and I might fare ill with my conditions. No! I will keep my ring!"
"Just heaven! can it really be that one sister can so torture another?" Kitty cried, in indignant pain. "And yet at this very moment, seeing as I do your incorrigible egotism, your pitiless nature, your invincible passion for intrigue more clearly than ever before, I am all the more impelled to deliver your former lover at any price from the vampire that thirsts for his life-blood. You must not retain any hold upon him. He shall begin his life anew, in a home where he will find happiness and peace, now that he is no longer condemned to lead a mere life of society by the side of a heartless coquette——"
"Many thanks for your flattering description! You show far too much enthusiasm for his happiness to allow of my entrusting my treasure to your keeping."
"Give it to me; you may do so without fear."