"What do you mean?" demanded the startled girl.
"That you are this night to die."
Gina shrieked.
"I may tell you," interrupted the lady, "that screams and resistance will be wholly useless. Your doom is irrevocable, therefore it may save you trouble to be silent."
"You are speaking falsely to me. I have done nothing to deserve death."
"Equivocation will be alike unavailing," repeated Lucrezia. "And if you ask what you have done—you have dared to step with your ill-placed passion between my lord and the Lady Adelaide: you have brought discredit[pg 193] upon the long-upheld religion of this house."
"I have disturbed no one's faith," returned Gina. "I wish to disturb none. It is true that I love Giovanni, Count di Visinara, but I loved him long ere he saw the Lady Adelaide."
"What!" cried the signora, her cheeks inflamed, and her brow darkening, "do you dare to avow your shame to my face?"
"It is no shame," answered Gina, sadly; there is nothing of guilt in such a love as mine."
"Follow me," repeated Lucrezia. "You have no time to waste in lamentations."