"But," said he, dropping his voice to a whisper—he did not know why—"but you—you?"
"Natalia Volutich, lord!" she said, whispering, too.
Young Zuan put up a hand to his bandaged head, and he drew the hand across his eyes. His eyes were bewildered, hurt—like a child's eyes before some great mystery.
"I do not understand," he said, just as a child would say it.
"Lord," cried the maid, with little sobs between her words, "I—did it first—I pretended to be Yaga first, for—duty's sake—the duty I owed to her. She had been good to me, lord, kind and loving. When your lieutenant thought I was Yaga and begged you to set sail with me, leaving Arbe, I saw that it would give her time—time to strengthen the—defences. So I lied. I did not—care what became of me if only she was—safe. Then—then you were in—danger and—oh, lord, I had looked into your eyes! I had—There was never man like you. I—loved you from the first moment—the very first moment. I could not bear that you should die. So I—saved you. Lord, do you not understand? What I did I did for love's sake. This morning when I found who you were I tried to tell you the truth. I tried, lord, did I not? Did I not? Oh!" she cried, turning from him with wringing hands, "I have done everything ill and you will never forgive me; and yet, lord, I did it all for love's sake!"
She looked towards Zuan Gradenigo, but he stood silent and helpless in his place, his eyes staring, his lips apart. The thing had been too swift and too amazing for him. His mind, unused to indirections, labored blindly at sea. And so, after a moment, she turned away again and crossed the room to where the dead woman hung, lax and heavy, in the carven chair. Sobbing, she dropped upon her knees before the chair and laid her forehead against the dead woman's arm, into whose soft flesh the leathern thongs had cut so cruelly.
"And I was away when they bound you!" she wept. "I was not with you when you died!"
Zuan Gradenigo awoke from his daze.
"Child!" he cried. "Child! Come away from that vile body. It pollutes you!"