"You know now why I want it," he resumed, speaking huskily and with restrained emotion.

"'Tis life! Life, girl! In that"-- he fought with himself before he could bring out the word--"in that phial is my life! Is life for whoever takes it! It is the _remedium_, it is strength, life, youth, and but one--but one dose in all the world! Do you wonder--I am dying!--that I want it?
Do you wonder--I am dying!--that I will have it?
But"-- with a strange grimace intended to reassure her--"I frighten you, I frighten you." "No!" she said, though in truth she had unconsciously retreated almost to the door of the staircase before his extended hands.

"But I--I scarcely understand, Messer Blondel.

If you will please to tell me----" "Yes, yes!" "What Messer Basterga--how he comes to have this ?" She must parley with him until she could collect her thoughts; until she could make up her mind whether he was sane or mad and what it behoved her to do.
"Comes to have it!" he cried vehemently.

"God knows! And what matter?
'Tis the _remedium_, I tell you, whoever has it! It is life, strength, youth!" he repeated, his eyes glittering, his face working, and the impulse to tell her not the truth only, but more even than the truth, if he might thereby dazzle her, carrying him away.