"I?" he said. "I had thought you meant a graver peril."
She looked at him in silence. Her pride met his and thrilled with it;
and for a moment the two were one.
"Odo!" she cried. She sank into a chair, and he went to her and took her
hand.
"Such fears are worthy neither of us," he said gravely.
"I am not ashamed of them," she said. Her hand clung to him and she
lifted her eyes to his face. "You will listen to me?" she whispered in a
glow.
He drew back chilled. If only she had kept the feminine in abeyance! But
sex was her only weapon.
"I have listened," he said quietly. "And I thank you."
"But you will not be counselled?"
"In the last issue one must be one's own counsellor."
Her face flamed. "If you were but that!" she tossed back at him.
The taunt struck him full. He knew that he should have let it lie; but
he caught it up in spite of himself.
"Madam!" he said.
"I should have appealed to our sovereign, not to her servant!" she
cried, dashing into the breach she had made.
He stood motionless, stunned almost. For what she had said was true. He
was no longer the sovereign: the rule had passed out of his hands.
His silence frightened her. With an instinctive jealousy she saw that
her words had started a train of thought in which she had no part. She
felt herself ignored, abandoned; and all her passions rushed to the
defence of her wounded vanity.
"Oh, believe me," she cried, "I speak as your Duchess, not as your wife.
Pages:
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509