I saw in it more than she meant to reveal. I saw with a
glance how both of us had been betrayed. "'Tis well!" muttered I to
myself in smothered accents of concentrated fury. "He shall account to
me for this!"
Bianca overhead me. New terror flashed in her countenance. "For mercy's
sake do not meet him - say nothing of what has passed - for my sake say
nothing to him - I only shall be the sufferer!"
A new suspicion darted across my mind - "What!" exclaimed I - "do you
then fear him - is he unkind to you - tell me," reiterated I,
grasping her hand and looking her eagerly in the face - "tell
me - dares he to use you harshly!"
"No! no! no!" cried she faltering and embarrassed; but the glance at
her face had told me volumes. I saw in her pallid and wasted features;
in the prompt terror and subdued agony of her eye a whole history of a
mind broken down by tyranny. Great God! and was this beauteous flower
snatched from me to be thus trampled upon? The idea roused me to
madness. I clinched my teeth and my hands; I foamed at the mouth; every
passion seemed to have resolved itself into the fury that like a lava
boiled within my heart. Bianca shrunk from me in speechless affright.
As I strode by the window my eye darted down the alley. Fatal moment! I
beheld Filippo at a distance!
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