"You have discovered whose child it was?"
"Yes. Unluckily...."
Roma felt dizzy. A thought had flashed upon her.
"It is the child of Donna Roma's man, Bruno Rocco, and apparently...."
A choking cry rang through the room. Was it herself who made it?
"Go on, Commendatore. Apparently...."
"The child was dressed in some carnival costume, and apparently he was
on his way to this house."
Roma's dizziness increased, and to save herself from falling she caught
at a side-table that stood under the bust.
On this table were some sculptor's tools--a chisel and a small mallet,
with which she had been working.
There was an interval in which the voices were deadened and confused.
Then they became clear and sharp as before.
"But the most important fact you have not yet given me. I trust you are
only saving it up for the last. The Deputy Rossi is arrested?"
"Unfortunately ... Excellency...."
"No?"
"He left home immediately after the outbreak and has not been seen
since. Presently the flashlight will be turned on by a separate battery
from Monte Mario, and every corner of the city shall be searched. But we
fear he is gone."
"Gone?"
"Perhaps by the train that left just before the signal."
Roma felt a cry rising to her throat again, but she put up her hand to
keep it down.
"No matter! Commendatore, send telegrams after the train to all stations
up to the frontier, with orders that nobody is to alight until every
carriage has been overhauled. Minghelli, go to the Consulta immediately,
and ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to despatch a portrait of Rossi
to every foreign Government."
"But no portrait exists, Excellency. It was a difficulty I found in
England."
"Yes, there is a portrait. Come this way."
Roma felt the room going round as the Baron came into it and switched on
the light.
"There is the only portrait of the illustrious Deputy, and our hostess
will lend it to be photographed."
"Never!" said Roma, and taking up the mallet she struck the bust a heavy
blow, and it fell in fragments to the floor.
Half-an-hour afterwards Roma was sitting amid the wreck of her work when
the Baron, wearing his fur-lined overcoat and pulling on his gloves,
came into the boudoir.
"I am compelled," he said, "to inflict my presence upon you for a moment
longer in order to tell you what my attitude in the future is to be, and
what feelings are to guide you. I shall continue to think of you as my
wife according to the law of nature, and of the man who has come between
us as your lover. I will not give you up to him, whatever happens; and
if he tries to take you away, or if you try to go to him, you must be
prepared to find that I offer every resistance. Two passions are now
engaged against the man, and I will not shrink from any course that
seems necessary to subdue either him or you, or both."