"
"I doubt it," Malipieri answered, smiling in spite of himself.
To tell the truth, since her mother had cleared away so many dangers,
and showed no intention of shutting her up in a convent, Sabina had
begun to see that it would be quite another matter to run away and
follow Malipieri to the ideal desert island, especially after they had
been openly engaged to be married and the engagement had been broken.
The world would have to know the story of his marriage then, and it
would call him dishonourable for having allowed himself to be engaged
to her when he was not free. It would say that she had found out the
truth, and that he was a villain, or something unpleasant of that
sort. But she meant to keep up the illusion bravely, as long as there
was any life in it at all, and then "something must happen."
"It seems so strange that I should be braver than you," she said.
He did not wonder at that as much as she did. Her reputation was saved
now, but his honour was in the balance, and at the mercy of a worldly
and unscrupulous woman. When he broke the engagement, the Princess
would tell the story of his marriage and publish it on the housetops.
He told Sabina so.
"You are safe," he added; "but when I lose you, I shall lose my place
among honourable men."
"Then I shall tell the truth, and the whole truth, to every one I
know," Sabina answered, in the full conviction that truth, like faith,
could perform miracles, and that a grain of it could remove mountains
of evil.
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