"Would they dare so much ?" "Aye, if I resist them further." "Why, then," I answered, with a ready laugh, "do not resist them further." "Lazzaro!" she cried, her accents telling of a spirit wounded by what she accounted a flippancy.
"Mistake me not," I hastened to elucidate.

"It is lest they should employ force and compel you at once to enter into this union that I counsel you to offer no resistance.

Beg for a little time, vaguely suggesting that you are not indisposed to the Lord Giovanni's suit." "That were deceit," she protested.
"A trusty weapon with which to combat tyranny," said I.
"Well?
And then ?" she questioned.

"Such a state of things cannot endure for ever.

It must end some day." I shook my head, and I smiled down upon her a smile that was very full of confidence.
"That day will never dawn, unless the Lord Giovanni's impatience transcends all bounds." She looked at me, a puzzled glance in her eyes, a bewildered expression knitting her fine brows.
"I do not take your meaning, my friend," she complained.
"Then mark the enucleation.