"Yes, I consent," she answered, with a ring of fierce joy in her unwomanly tones.
"Now that's my sensible wife," said Peter, transported with joy. "I thought you would come to your senses after a while. Well, since you are willing I say the sooner the better."
"Yes, the sooner the better," his wife repeated after him.
"Let it be to-night then," suggested Peter, who did not want to give Haidee's cautious fears any time to change her resolution. He believed in the old adage: "Strike while the iron is hot."
"Yes," answered Haidee readily, "let it be to-night."
The listener's heart gave a great fluttering bound and then sank like lead in her bosom.
Through all that she had suffered the desire of life, and the hope of ultimate release had remained strong in her breast. How could it be otherwise with one so young and lovely, and for whom life held so much? Now all her hopes were blighted in the dreadful knowledge just come upon her. Death in the horrible form of murder was about to blot out her young and tender life forever from the earth. She clasped her hands together, and repressing a strong desire to shriek aloud, lest that cry of anguish should precipitate her fate, listened on.
"Who will do the deed?" asked Peter, who was a coward in spite of his braggadocio.
"I will!" said Haidee, fiercely. "I will get my revenge upon her thus. Presently, when she is asleep and dreaming perhaps of her home and her lover, I will steal in upon her and clasp my hands around her white little neck and strangle her to death."
"It is settled, then," said old Peter, with a fiendish chuckle of delight. "Get our pipes, now, Haidee, and let us sit up and wait till the time comes."