Love lies dying down there. Hush. We
should be on our knees."
She was now weeping bitterly. "O lasso! O lasso! What have I done to
you?"
"I fought in your honour, madam," I said, commanding myself, "I dared a
murder in your defence. I would have stormed Hell's ramparts and put the
baleful city to the sword in the same cause. From that accursed day on
which I first saw you until now I have held you high before my face as
the glory of womanhood. And now you repeat the slander for which that
monster lay at my mercy. You repeat it--you allowed him to say it in
your ear!"
She was pale, her eyes were wide; but she did not retreat. "But," she
said, "but it is true, Checho. It is true. What he said to you was true--
and now--" she frowned as she pondered out what was to come; clouds
gathered over her beautiful, soulless face; she folded her arms,
clenched her teeth and stormed at me.
"You fool, you fool, you fool!" she said fiercely, panting for breath
with which to end me. "Oh, you dream-child, you moonraker, what are you
doing in a world where men work for their pleasures and women have to
cringe for the scraps? What was I to do when Porfirio shut me out of
doors, and you--you, who had caused it, refused to come with me? Was I
to spread my wings and fly straight into the lap of the Madonna? You
would say so, I suppose! Your flights were very fine, but one cannot
live on the wind. Any man but a poet would have picked me up at the door
and taken care of me with a 'Come, my beloved, we will fly together.
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