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Elettra has the room before yours. But you are tired, and you must be hungry. It is my fault for not leaving you at once." "But you will dine with me? To-night and every night, Don Teodoro that is understood." Half an hour later, they sat down to table in the light of the lamp and the six candles, in the room from which Veronica had looked out upon the valley.
The creature came forward from the door, sprang instantly upon the foot of the bed and lay down, purring, its forepaws doubled under it, and its eyes shut. "It is a heavy cat," said Elettra, thoughtfully. "It is so fat. One can hear it when it walks across the room." She scratched its head gently, and it purred more loudly under her hand.
At the same time she believed herself so safe as still to be able to throw the suspicion entirely upon Elettra, though Veronica would protect her. Moreover, though she would not have admitted the fact, her strength was momentarily so broken that she felt it easier to obey the young girl than to visit her and fight out the interview alone.
Then, while Veronica listened and Elettra bent, candle in hand, till her face touched the floor, to see it and get it out, all at once it was quiet. "Get up," said Veronica, nervously, for she was fond of the creature. "Help me to move the chest of drawers out. Then we can get it out."
"Excellency," she said, "let us go to Muro. The air of this house is not good for you. It is damp, and you are pale in these days. In the mountains the colour will come back. The people will make a feast when you come. It will amuse you. Excellency, let us go." Veronica laughed sleepily. "You are dreaming, Elettra. Go away. I want to go to sleep."
She laid down her work, and Elettra set the table before her knees, with its high silver urn, and all the necessary little implements.
Though people do not know me as they knew my father, though I am only a girl and came to you, straight from the convent, I know that I have power, and I shall use it. I am not poor Elettra, whom you intended to accuse. I am the Princess of Acireale; I have been your ward; you and your husband have robbed me, and you have tried to murder me.
But not wishing to be alone with herself any longer on that day, she came down from the tower and went to her room, where she spent an hour with Elettra in examining the state of her very much reduced wardrobe. "Your Excellency is in rags," observed the woman. "You cannot appear in Naples as a bride with any of the things you have.
They were a gloomy couple, in their black clothes, under the green light, with harassed, mask-like faces. One night, Matilde came in very late. She trod softly on the polished floor, wearing felt slippers. "Elettra sleeps in her dressing-room," she said in a low voice. Macomer looked up, and the twitching of his face began instantly, as though he were going to laugh.
Veronica, whose thoughts were intent upon the animal she was touching, and which, as she knew, was begging for cream, immediately leaned forward, and took from under the silver cream jug a saucer which Elettra had especially brought for the purpose. She poured a little cream into it, and, bending down, placed it on the lower shelf of the tea-table, and gently pushed the cat towards it.
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