“I don’t know,” she said. “Perhaps I’ll settle down again before long.”
“I hope so. Has it ever struck you, Miss Paleaf, how completely you are in my power?”
“No,” she answered, looking at him quickly.
“Well, you know, I found you in the temple, in the Holiest Place—the place forbidden to women. Do you know what the punishment for that transgression is?”
“No.”
“To have your tongue torn out by the roots.”
“Impossible!”
“Not in the least. In this one interview with me you have said enough against the Serpent to set all its scales and coils bristling, and its fangs working.”
“I have said nothing.”
“‘Cruel and deceitful,’ were not those your words?”