"I don't deserve it--I don't deserve to be doubted.

Ah, Rudolf! does a woman who marries without love look on the man as I look on you ?" And she hid her face from me.
For more than a minute we stood there together; and I, even with my arm about her, summoned up what honour and conscience her beauty and the toils that I was in had left me.
"Flavia," I said, in a strange dry voice that seemed not my own, "I am not--" As I spoke--as she raised her eyes to me--there was a heavy step on the gravel outside, and a man appeared at the window.

A little cry burst from Flavia, as she sprang back from me.

My half-finished sentence died on my lips.

Sapt stood there, bowing low, but with a stern frown on his face.
"A thousand pardons, sire," said he, "but his Eminence the Cardinal has waited this quarter of an hour to offer his respectful adieu to your Majesty." I met his eye full and square; and I read in it an angry warning.