"'I will defend you. I will take you away with me. I will take you to a beautiful city full of palaces. I will buy you a house and an estate and you shall be a great lady.'
"'It cannot be. I already have my lawful husband and you too have your lawful wife.'
"'Your lawful husband shall die when I choose, and you will then be a widow. As for Anicza, she only married a mask. I will tear it off and she will no longer know who I was.'
"Oh, my lady, can you not fancy how my heart broke at these words! Yet I did not weep.
"'You will deceive me as you deceived her,' replied Mariora.
"Then the robber began to swear that I had deceived him first. He lied concerning me, oh! the accursed wretch! Yet the game had to go on. Mariora was no longer the mistress of her own thoughts. She is a helpless creature. If I had not whispered in her ear what she was to say, she would have had no answer ready for him.
"'I fear you,' she said at my prompting, 'for you are a robber; it is not love but money that you want. Why did it not occur to you to court me before? You have only come now because you have found out that my father has been here and offered me a hundred ducats that we may buy a little estate with it. You have only come here to rob me of that.'
"The tempter grew furious at so much gainsaying.
"'Stupid wench!' he cried, 'what are your hundred ducats to me? I will give you ten times as much. Here! take them!' And with that he pitched through the little window—opening above the door a heavy purse which fell rattling at our feet. It was full of ducats. I kicked it aside with loathing.
"'It is easy to talk,' replied Mariora. 'Now, you give and give, but if I were to let you in, you would take them back again to-morrow with my own.'