With a little cry like that of a small animal that had been hurt she said,
“No! No – no!”
Before the Marquis could stop her, she had run away from him, leaving the deck and disappearing below to her cabin.
He took a step as if he would follow her.
Then he turned to hold on to the rail and look out at the lights on the land and the stars overhead without seeing them.
*
In her cabin Lucia locked the door and flung herself down on her bed, hiding her face in her pillow.
She was trembling so convulsively that for the moment she felt almost as if her teeth were chattering.
Then, as she tried to think, she felt that her brain had ceased to function and it was hard to breathe.
She lay feeling as if she had dropped down into a dark dungeon and she could not find the way out.
It was quite
