hrew the accursed
thing crash upon the pavement.

"Treachery! Treachery!" Molly shrieked; and again, "Treachery! O God, he
has made me a devil!" She threw her head up, herself tumbled back upon
the cushions; knew nothing of Grifone's "Go, go, go, my lord; the house
is quick with murder!" and when she opened her eyes at last saw Amilcare
standing grim and grey before her.

Who can say what shall best reveal a man, whether love or hate or fear?
Or how to know which of these three passions stripped her this Amilcare
naked? Naked he was now, and she found that she had never known him. The
colour of his face was that of old white wax; his mouth seemed stretched
to cracking point, neither turned up at the corners nor down, but a
bleak slit jagged across his face. He fastened her with his hard eyes,
which seemed smaller than usual, and had a scared look, as if he was
positively disconcerted at what he read as they glimmered over his
wife. In one of his hands (never still) he had a long knife, very lean
in the blade.

"Ah, what do you want of me more, Amilcare?" It was Molly spoke first,
in a whisper.

He croaked his reply. "I am going to kill you."

"Oh! oh! You are going to kill me, my lord?"

"You have sold me to my enemy. He is your lover."

"No, no! I have no lover, Amilcare; I have never had a lover."

"Liar!" he thundered. "If he had not been your lover you would not have
spared his life. There can be no other reason. I am not a fool."

To Grifone that was just what he appeared. To her some ray of her own
soul's honest logic showed at the last.

"Amilcare!" she cried out, on her knees, "Amilcare, listen, I pray you.
I have done you no wrong; I implore you not to hurt me; I have done you
honour. It was because I loved _you_ that I saved his life. I speak the
truth, my lord, I speak the truth."

"I have never thought you to speak otherwise; but I have been wrong, it
appears. The excuse is monstrous. I am going to kill you."

The miserable girl turned him a pinched face. She searched for any shred
of what she had known in him, but all the deadly mask of him she saw
told her nothing. She began to be witless again, to wring her hands, to
whimper and whine.

Amilcare looked fixedly at her, every muscle in his face rigid as stone.
So, as he ruminated, some whisp of his racing thought caught light from
his inner rage, flared blood-bright before him, and convulsing him drove
him to his work.

"Gross trull!" He s