But he is lying sick and with a clouded mind, and I can not ask him.

O noble lady, kindness looks out of your eyes; cease to rub salt into my wounds! The task before me is hard enough already.

But I would do it, and try to get speech with that terrible man, even if I had no one to protect me." The lady had listened with varying feelings to this outpouring of the young girl's heart.

Every instinct rebelled against the thought of sacrificing this pure, sweet creature to the fury of the tyrant whose wickedness was as unlimited as his power, and yet she saw no other chance of saving the artist, whom she held in affectionate regard.

Her own noble heart understood the girl's resolve to purchase the life of those she loved, even with her blood; she, in the same place, would have done the same thing; and she thought to herself that it would have made her happy to see such a spirit in her own child.