"Humph! he is handsome for a savage," returned the chevalier, unwillingly; "but, now that we are alone, madame, explain to me how you can in one day (do not be shocked by this question which circumstances compel me to ask you), how you can in one day change your lover?"
"Oh, it is simple enough; one comes, the other goes; it is very simple."
"One comes, the other goes—it is very simple from this standpoint, but, madame, nature and morality have laws!"
"All three love me truly, why should I not love all three?"
This answer was made with such perfect candor that the chevalier said to himself, "It seems as if this unhappy woman must have been raised in some desert or cavern. She has not the slightest idea of good and evil; one would have to absolutely educate her." He said aloud, with some embarrassment, "At the risk of being taken for an indiscreet and wearisome person, madame, I would say that this morning, during your walk with the Caribbean, I both saw and heard you. How is it that at a sign from him you would dare, at the risk of poisoning yourself, lift to your lips the deadly fruit of the poisonous apple?"
"If Youmäale should say to me 'die' I should die," replied the widow.
"But the buccaneer, the filibuster—what would they say if you should die for the Caribbean?"
"They would say I had done right."
"And if they demanded that you should die for them?"
"I would die for them."