She did not speak.
"Look at the name on it--David Leone. There was only one person in the
world who knew me by that name--only one."
She began to cry beneath her hands.
"I told you everything myself, Roma. It was in this very room, you
remember, the night you came here first. You asked me if I wasn't afraid
to tell you, and I answered no. You couldn't deceive the son of your own
father. It wasn't natural. I was right, wasn't I?"
She felt him take hold of her hand and draw it down from her face.
"Look at the ring on your hand, dear. And look at this one on mine. You
are my wife, Roma. Does a man's wife betray him?"
His voice cracked at every word.
"When we parted you promised that as long as you lived, wherever you
might be, and whatever the world might do with us, you would be faithful
to me to the last. You have kept your promise, haven't you? It isn't
true that you have denounced me to the police."
He paused, but she did not reply, and he dropped her hand, and it fell
like a lifeless thing to her side.
"I know it isn't true, dear, but I want to hear it from your own lips.
One word--only one. Why shouldn't you speak? Say you know nothing of
this warrant. Say that somebody else knew David Leone. It may be so--I
cannot remember. Say ... say anything. Don't you see I will believe you
whatever you say, Roma?"
Roma could control herself no longer.
"I know quite well it is impossible for you to forgive me, David."
"Forgive!"
"But if I could explain...."
"Explain? What can there be to explain? Did you denounce me to the
magistrate?"
"If you could only know what happened...."
"Did you denounce me to the magistrate?"
She looked with frightened eyes at the bedroom door, and then dropped to
her knees.
"Have pity upon me."
"Did you denounce me to the magistrate?"
"Yes."
His pale face became ashen.
"Then it's true," he said in a voice that hardly passed his throat.
"What my friends have been saying all along is true. They warned me
against you from the first, but I wouldn't believe them. I was a fool,
and this is my reward."
So saying he crushed the warrant in his hand and flung it at her feet.
Roma could bear no more. Making a great call on her resolution, she
rose, turned towards the bedroom door, and, speaking in a loud voice in
order that he who was within might hear, she said: