"Ah," said Lucile impetuously, "whither are you hurrying us in the future,—to revolution?"
"Perhaps," said Savrola calmly.
"You are prepared to plunge the country in a civil war?"
"Well, I hope it will not come to that extreme. Probably there will be some street-fighting and some people will be killed, but——"
"But why should you drive them like this?"
"I discharge a duty to the human species in breaking down a military despotism. I do not like to see a Government supported only by bayonets; it is an anachronism."
"The Government is just and firm; it maintains law and order. Why should you assail it merely because it does not harmonise with your theories?"
"My theories!" said Savrola. "Is that the name you give to the lines of soldiers with loaded rifles that guard this palace, or to the Lancers I saw spearing the people in the square a week ago?"
His voice had grown strangely vehement and his manner thrilled her. "You will ruin us," she said weakly.
"No," he replied with his grand air, "you can never be ruined. Your brilliancy and beauty will always make you the luckiest of women, and your husband the luckiest of men."