Petronilla rose and stepped back a little, glancing towards one of the drawn curtains.
'You have threatened my life,' she said in an undertone.

'Remember that it is you who are in my power.

If I raise my voice on one word, the next moment you will lie pierced by a score of weapons.

Moderate your insults: my temper is not meek.' Basil thought for a moment with painful intentness.
'Speak plainly,' he said at length.

'You would have me suspect--?
I am ashamed to utter the name.' 'Keep it to yourself and muse upon it.' 'You dare bid me think that he, my dearest and most loyal friend, has infamously betrayed me?
Now I know indeed that you have lied to me in every word, for this is the last audacity of baseness.