“O steeped in falsehood to the lips!” exclaimed she.  “And you are the idol I have worshipped!”

He looked at her with astonishment not unmingled with admiration.  “Rosa, I could not have believed you had such a temper,” rejoined he.  “But why will you persist in making yourself and me unhappy?  As long as my wife is ignorant of my love for you, no harm is done.  If you would only listen to reason, we might still be happy.  I could manage to visit you often.  You would find me as affectionate as ever; and I will provide amply for you.”

“Provide for me?” she repeated slowly, looking him calmly and loftily in the face.  “What have you ever seen in me, Mr. Fitzgerald, that has led you to suppose I would consent to sell myself?”

His susceptible temperament could not withstand the regal beauty of her proud attitude and indignant look.  “O Rosa,” said he, “there is no woman on earth to be compared with you.  If you only knew how I idolize you at this moment, after all the cruel words you have uttered, you surely would relent.  Why will you not be reasonable, dearest?  Why not consent to live with me as your mother lived with your father?”

“Don’t wrong the memory of my mother,” responded she hastily.  “She was too pure and noble to be dishonored by your cruel laws.  She would never have entered into any such base and degrading arrangement as you propose.  She couldn’t have lived under the perpetual shame of deceiving another wife.  She couldn’t have loved my father, if he had deceived her as you have deceived me.  She trusted him entirely, and in return he gave her his undivided affection.”

“And I give you undivided affection,” he replied.  “By all the stars of heaven, I swear that you are now, as you always have been, my Rosa Regina, my Rosa munda.”

“Do not exhaust your oaths,” rejoined she, with a contemptuous curl of the lip.  “Keep some of them for your Lily Bell, your precious pearl, your moonlight sylph.”

Thinking the retort implied a shade of jealousy, he felt encouraged to persevere.  “You may thank your own imprudence for having overheard words so offensive to you,” responded he.  “But Rosa, dearest, you cannot, with all your efforts, drive from you the pleasant memories of our love.  You surely do not hate me?”

“No, Mr. Fitzgerald; you have fallen below hatred.  I despise you.”

His brow contracted, and his lips tightened.  “I cannot endure this treatment,” said he, in tones of suppressed rage.  “You tempt me too far.  You compel me to humble your pride.  Since I cannot persuade you to listen to expostulations and entreaties, I must inform you that my power over you is complete.  You are my slave.  I bought you of your father’s creditors before I went to Nassau.  I can sell you any day I choose; and, by Jove, I will, if—­”

The sudden change that came over her arrested him.  She pressed one hand hard upon her heart, and gasped for breath.  He sank at once on his knees, crying, “O, forgive me, Rosa!  I was beside myself.”