Molly answered nothing with her lips, but in her bosom prayed
ceaselessly for pity.
"Love me, pledge me with your lips, let me drink of you, O my soul!"
sighed the Duke.
"Ecco, Madonna," said Grifone, and handed her the cup.
"The chalice of love!" cried Cesare, straining towards the white girl.
"Drink to me, my heart, and I will drink from thee!"
Molly still held the cup, though the liquor curved brimming at the lip.
Her eyes were sightless, her head shaking with palsy.
"Drink, drink, my soul!"
"Yes, my lord, yes, yes; I must drink very deep," she said, and raised
the cup.
"Pshutt!" said Grifone.
She turned like a caught beast, wild and blanched with horror. She rose
suddenly, swaying on her feet, entangled one of them in her long robe
and stumbled forward to stay herself by the table. She looked like some
spurred Bacchante, lurching over the board with the great flagon a-nod
in her hand. Cesare made to catch her in his arms, and reached for the
cup; but then she screamed with all her might and threw the accursed
thing crash upon the pavement.
"Treachery! Treachery!" Molly shrieked; and again, "Treachery! O God, he
has made me a devil!" She threw her head up, herself tumbled back upon
the cushions; knew nothing of Grifone's "Go, go, go, my lord; the house
is quick with murder!" and when she opened her eyes at last saw Amilcare
standing grim and grey before her.
Who can say what shall best reveal a man, whether love or hate or fear?
Or how to know which of these three passions stripped her this Amilcare
naked? Naked he was now, and she found that she had never known him. The
colour of his face was that of old white wax; his mouth seemed stretched
to cracking point, neither turned up at the corners nor down, but a
bleak slit jagged across his face. He fastened her with his hard eyes,
which seemed smaller than usual, and had a scared look, as if he was
positively disconcerted at what he read as they glimmered over his
wife. In one of his hands (never still) he had a long knife, very lean
in the blade.
"Ah, what do you want of me more, Amilcare?" It was Molly spoke first,
in a whisper.