they scream, when men are stuck in a bog they swear. The difference is
fundamental. In nine cases out of ten it is the woman who enjoys the
ecstatic delight of saying "I told you so," and there are plenty of
women who would ask no greater joy in paradise than to say so to their
husbands for ever and ever. Indeed, eternal reward and punishment
could thus be at once combined and distributed in a simple manner.

Sabina took her first fence that evening, for when she put out her
candle she was sure that Malipieri was already her friend, and that
she could trust him in any emergency. Moreover, though she would not
have acknowledged it, she inwardly hoped that some emergency might not
be far in the future.

But Malipieri walked all the way from the Via Ludovisi to the Palazzo
Conti, which is more than a mile, without noticing that he had
forgotten to light the cigar he had taken out on leaving Volterra's
house.





CHAPTER VI




Malipieri had the Palazzo Conti to himself. The main entrance was
always shut now, and only a small postern, cut in one side of the
great door, was left ajar. The porter loafed about in the great court