The poor woman paused for breath, and in her horror, she hid her face in her hands.  She had her faults, no doubt, and she knew that the world was bad, but she had never dreamt of such barefaced and utterly monstrous cynicism as Sabina’s.  If the girl had been overcome with shame and repentance, and had broken down entirely, imploring help and forgiveness, as would have seemed natural, the Baroness, for her own social sake, might have been at last moved to help her out of her trouble.  Instead, being a person of rigid virtue and judging the situation in the only way really possible for her to see it, she was both disgusted and horrified.  It was no wonder.  But she was not prepared for Sabina’s answer.

“If I were strong enough, I would kill you,” said the young girl, quietly laying her head on the pillow again.

The Baroness laughed hysterically.  She felt as if she were in the presence of the devil himself.  She was not at all a hysterical woman nor often given to dramatic exhibitions of feeling, but she had never dreamt that a human being could behave with such horribly brazen shamelessness.

For some moments there was silence.  Then Sabina spoke, in a quietly scornful tone, while the Baroness turned her back on her and stood quite still, looking out of the window.

“I suppose you have a right to be surprised,” Sabina said, “but you have no right to insult me and say things that are not true.  Perhaps Signor Malipieri likes me very much.  I do not know.  He has never told me he loved me.”

The Baroness’s large figure shook with fury, but she did not turn round.  What more was the girl going to say?  That she did not even care a little for the man with whom she had ruined herself?  Yes.  That was what she was going on to explain.  It was beyond belief.

“I have only seen him a few times,” Sabina said.  “I daresay I shall be very fond of him if I see him often.  I think he is very like my ideal of what a man should be.”

The Baroness turned her face half round with an expression that was positively savage.  But she said nothing, and again looked through the panes.  She remembered afterwards that the room smelt slightly of stale cigar smoke, soap and leather.

“He wished me to see the things he has found before any one else should,” Sabina continued.  “So he got Sassi to bring me here.  While we were in the vaults, the water came, and we could not get out.  He worked for hours to break a hole, and it was two o’clock in the morning when we were free.  I had not had any dinner, and of course I could not go with him to your house at that hour, even if I had not been worn out.  So he brought me here and gave me something to eat, and his room to sleep in.  As for the door not being locked, he told me twice to lock it, and I was so sleepy that I forgot to.  That is what happened.”  After an ominous silence, the Baroness turned round.  Her face was almost yellow now.