"Can it be expiated?"
"Never, either in this world or the next. And every moment of delay that we voluntarily make in hurling her to her doom, must draw down wrath on our own heads from the saints on high."
The Lady Adelaide meekly bowed her head, as if to deprecate any wrath that might just then be falling.
"Thy lady in waiting, Lucrezia, is true, I have reason to believe," continued the monk.
"I believe her to be true," answered the Lady Adelaide.
"We may want her co-operation," he concluded, "for I opine that thou, my daughter, wilt not deign to aid in this; neither do I think thou art fitted for it."
III.
The castle was wrapped in silence, it being past the hour at which the household retired to repose. Gina Montani was in her nightdress, though as yet she had not touched her hair, which remained in long curls, as she had worn it in the day. Suspense and agitation caused her to linger, and she sat at her dressing-table in a musing attitude, her head resting on her hand, wondering what would be the ending to all that the day had brought forth. She had dismissed her attendant some time before. With a deep sigh she rose to continue her preparations for rest, when the door softly opened, and the Signora Lucrezia appeared.
"You need not prepare yourself for bed," she observed, in a low, distinct whisper; "another sort of bed is preparing for you."