She was thinking, he guessed, of the hundred insults she had undergone at Basterga's hands, of the shame-compelling taunts to which she had been forced to listen, of the loathed touch she had been forced to bear.

If there was aught in her mind beyond this, any motive deeper or more divine, he did not perceive it; enough, that he saw that she wavered, and he pressed her.
"You will be free," he cried passionately.

"Freed from him! Freed from fear of him! Say you will do it! Say that you will do it," he continued fervently, and he made as if he would kneel before her.

"Do it, and I swear that never shall a word to displease you pass my lips." With a glance of scorn that pierced even his selfishness, "Swear only," she said, "that you have told me the truth! I ask no more." "I swear it on my salvation!" She drew a deep breath.
"I will do it," she said.

"The steel box which is chained to the wall ?" "Yes, yes," he panted, "you cannot mistake it.