Alas, alas! But I cannot understand," Molly wailed; but the other
caught her the closer.

"That you do not understand, Carina, is your salvation. It proves you
immortal. Now go. No! kiss me, kiss me!"

They were parted at last; and though they did meet again, they kissed no
more.

VIII

PRIVATE TREATY

To a most elaborately penned invitation the Borgia responded by half a
dozen words scrawled by his secretary. He would be in the March at such
and such a time, and would spend such and such a day in Nona.

He had heard from Amilcare; he replied to Molly. The insult was glaring,
even to her.

"Is this tolerable, my lord?" said the meek beauty, incensed at last.

Amilcare shrugged. "It may not have to be borne very long," said he.
"For my part I am accustomed to reckon a gift by its use to me, not by
the sacking round about it." He was now beyond his wife's depth: she
neither followed nor tried to follow him.

In these days she saw but little of her lord, and could have wished it
less. He, who in action was as cheerful a soul as you could wish to
serve, was harassed by the long expectances of diplomacy, and in the
routine work of governing most grim. The Nonesi had come to hate him a
good deal, but to fear him more. Expenses were incalculable, the taxes
grew; there were riots. Savage snaps of speech in the Council did harm;
imprisonments followed, then some unaccountable sudden deaths. High and
low alike, none knew where the blow might fall, but all flinched at it.

In these distresses Molly served him well, for she at least was
universally loved. If the Duke had a man stabbed, the Duchess took such
sweet consolation to the widow that none could murmur long. To watch her
warm tears flow was in itself a solace; to feel her arms, to win her
kissing mouth, quickened those doubtful poor souls.

Furtively also, Grifone was on her side; a neat phrase here and there
made her position plain to the most infidel in the city. It is true that
while he helped her there he tortured her otherwhere inexpressibly. He
hardly ever left her now, and her heart bled to see him go in fear of
her; she prayed night and day that he might have strength to shake off
this biting, cruel love. It never entered her head that she could
console him by perfidy to a perfidious husband; it had entered Grifone's
head a hundred times, but he always put it out. He could afford to wait
for what, after all, he only valued as a concession to vul