“Severance from you is indeed best for us all.—Be ready: the judges will send for you soon.”
“Very well,” she replied. “I will be silent; you have only to provide for the Syrian’s safety. You have given me your word.”
“And so long as you keep yours I will keep mine. Or else...” the words would come from his quivering lips—“or else war to the knife!”
“War to the knife!” she echoed with flashing eyes. “But one thing more. I have proof that the emerald which Hiram sold belonged to me. By all the saints—proof!”
“So much the better for you,” he said. “Woe to us both, if you force me to forget that you are a woman!”
And he left the room with a rapid step.
CHAPTER XII.
Orion went down stairs scowling and clenching his fists. His heart ached to bursting.
What had he done, what had befallen him? That a woman should dare to treat him so!—a woman whom he had deigned to love—the loveliest and noblest of women; but at the same time the haughtiest, most vengeful, and most hateful.