And when you are well enough to go to her lodgings, decline with thanks if she offers you anything to eat or drink." Mrs.Gallilee raised herself on the sofa.

"Are you insulting me, sir," she asked, "by making this serious emergency the subject of a joke ?" "I never was more in earnest, madam, in my life." "You think--you really think--that she is capable of trying to poison me ?" "Most assuredly I do." Mrs.Gallilee sank back on the pillow.

Mr.Le Frank stated his reasons; checking them off, one by one, on his fingers.
"Who is she ?" he began.

"She is an Italian woman of the lower orders.
The virtues of the people among whom she had been born and bred, are not generally considered to include respect for the sanctity of human life.
What do we know already that she has done?
She has alarmed the priest, who keeps her conscience, and knows her well; and she has attacked you with such murderous ferocity that it is a wonder you have escaped with your life.

What sort of message have you sent to her, after this experience of her temper?
You have told the tigress that you have the power to separate her from her cub, and that you mean to use it.