“Pepeeta,” he cried, approaching her, “you must be mine and mine alone!  I can no longer endure the thought of your being the wife of another man.  You must come with me.  I will not take ‘no’ for an answer.  I command you to leave this man and go with me.  It is a worse crime for you to live with him when you hate him than to leave him!  Come, let us go!  I have money!  There are horses to be had.  He does not know where we are.  Let us fly!”

It was evident that he had brooked her refusal as long as he could.  The man was mad.  He seized her by the arm.

In a single instant this gentle creature passed through an incredible transformation.  She wrenched her arm from his hand and stood before him fearless, resolute, magnificent!  Her gypsy training stood her in good stead now.  Young as she was when a pupil in that hard school, she had learned from her wild teachers the cardinal principle of their code—­loyalty to her marriage vows.  They had taught her to believe that this breach was the one unpardonable sin.

She drew a little stiletto from the folds of her dress, placed its point upon her heart and said:  “It is not necessary that a gypsy should live; but it is necessary that she should be virtuous!”

Her resplendent beauty, her fearless courage, her invincible determination quenched the wild impulses of the reckless youth in a single instant.  All the manhood, all the chivalry of his better nature rose within him and did homage.  He threw himself on his knees and frantically besought her pardon.

In an instant the fierce light died from her eyes.  She stooped down, laid her hand on his arm, and with an all-forgiving charity lifted him to his feet.  They stood regarding each other in silence.  All that their souls could reveal had been manifested in actions.  The brief scene was terminated by a common impulse.  They turned their faces toward the city and walked quietly, each reflecting silently upon the struggle that had been enacted and the denouement which was yet to come.

In her ignorance and inexperience, Pepeeta hoped that a scene so dreadful would quench the madness in her lover’s soul; but this revelation of the grandeur of her nature only inflamed his desires the more.  The momentary feeling of shame and penitence passed away.  His determination to possess her became more fixed than ever and during the homeward walk assumed a definite form.

For a long time a sinister purpose had been rolling about in his soul.  That purpose now crystallized into resolution.  He determined to commit a crime if need be in order to gain his end.

Nothing can be more astonishing than the rapidity and ease with which the mind becomes habituated to the presence of a criminal intention.  The higher faculties are at first disturbed, but they soon become accustomed to the danger, and permit themselves to be destroyed one after another, with only feeble protestations.