"Is there nothing to do to-night?"
"No, dear."
"Where do you go?"
"To meet the men at the tomb of Asdrubal."
"Who summoned them?"
"I myself. You must be sad and sorry, child, and it is my fault."
She checked a sob in her throat. "I am not far away, and old Alaida is kind. Let me go on some errand to-night?"
"No, my dear, I cannot."
He recalled the words of the message which he had received from Don Silverio that day. He knew the justice of this message, he knew that it only forbade what all humanity, hospitality, manhood, and compassion forbade to him. One terrible passion had warped his nature, closed his heart, and invaded his reason to the exclusion of all other thoughts or instincts; but he was not yet so lost to shame as, now that he knew what he had done, to send out a female creature into peril to do his bidding.
"Tell me, then, tell me," pleaded Nerina, "when will anything be done?"