The Chamberlain bowed and answered mockingly.
"It rests with you!"
"With me?"
"Acknowledge your defeat!"
"What do you mean?" she asked with rising fear.
Benilo shrugged his shoulders.
"We made a wager—the loser pays."
"But the forfeit?" she cried in terror. "You would not claim—you would not chain me to you for ever?"
He regarded her with a slow triumphant smile and answered cruelly:
"Forever? At one time the thought had less terrors for you!"