She stopped, struggling for breath. The dangerous ecstasy held her still, like a rigor; but he, who with shut eyes and fending arms had been avoiding, now lifted his head.
‘You misjudge me—you are too hasty——’
As a woman remote from him and his affairs she answered him, ‘Not so. But I have been too slow.’
‘Your Majesty should see——’
She sprang into vehemence, transfigured once more by fierce and terrible beauty.
‘I do see. You are a liar. I see you through and through, and the lies, like snakes, in your heart. I will never willingly see you again.’
Still he tried to reason with her. ‘If accommodation of joint griefs——’
‘None! There can be none. Where do we join, sir? Tell me, and I will burn the part.’
‘Dear sir,’ said the Italian, as she paced the room, gathering more eloquence—‘dear sir, I advise you to depart.’