“Well, what then?”
“You must be entirely at her mercy,” he said in a deep voice. “And you know the fiendishness of her vengeance.”
“I know,” she responded in a voice scarcely above at whisper, the voice of a woman driven to desperation.
“But you must arm yourself against her,” he urged.
“Together we are strong enough to defeat any attack that she may make.”
“Tell me plainly,” she asked, dropping her voice until it was scarcely above a whisper, “do you, yourself, fear her?”
“Yes. She is the only person who, besides ourselves, knows the truth,” he responded in a low tone.
“And you would set a trap into which she will fall?” she went on, still in a whisper. “Come, do not let us prevaricate longer. You intend to kill her?”
There was dead silence. At last her companion spoke.
“Well,” he answered, “and if your surmise is correct?”