"To-morrow," she said, "I leave Rome for ever."
With a stifled curse the Chamberlain started up.
"With him? Never!"
"I did not say with him."
"No!" he retorted venomously. "But for once the truth had trapped the falsehood on your tongue."
She ignored his brutal speech. He watched her narrowly. As she made no reply he continued:
"Deem you that I would let you go back to him, even if he did not spurn you, the thing you are? You think to deceive me by telling me that the hot blood of Marozia has been chilled to that of a nun? A lie! A thousand lies! Your virtue! This for the virtue of such as you," and he snapped his fingers into her white face. "The virtue of a serpent,—of a wanton—"
There was a dangerous glitter in her eyes.
Her voice sounded hardly above a whisper as she turned upon him.
"Monster, you—who have wrecked my life, destroyed its holiest ties and glory in the deed! Monster, who made my days a torture and my nights a curse! I could slay you with my own hands!"