Whereupon Donna Tullia turned a little pale.
"Betrayed!" she repeated, "and by Gouache!" Gouache laughed, as he drew out the battered old carved chair on which Madame Mayer was accustomed to sit when he painted.
"Calm yourself, Madame," he said.

"I have not the least intention of betraying you.

I have made a counter-revolution--but I am perfectly frank.

I will not tell of the ferocious deeds I have heard discussed." Del Ferice scowled and drew back, partly acting, partly in earnest.

It lay in his schemes to make Donna Tullia believe herself involved in a genuine plot, and from this point of view he felt that he must pretend the greatest horror and surprise.