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“You’reto stop you”

“Exactly You’re very quick, you know, very quick for a”

“For a woman?”

To to say for an American No Italian hs at some private memory “But sometimes feminine delicacy may cause women to be slower to reach unpleasant conclusions”

“What unpleasant conclusion?”

“Come noe don’t need to be explicit”

“Kill or be killed,” Rainy says “That’s the conclusion, isn’t it?”

Toative, it’s amusement and disapproval “I abhor threats”

“Me too, when they’re directed at me,” Rainy snaps

Her heart is thudding in her chest She has difficulty breathing without gasping or sobbing, but her arden wall And there is a un beside that door, and probably another just

outside on the street She has a pistol that will be very aard to draw from beneath her dress with Tomaso beside her Anyway, a pistol versus at least one and likely two shotguns is not a good bet Then, too, even if she so before they find her? Minutes? A half hour at best?

Two things are obvious She can refuse and die right now, if not by Toreeing

Option two seems a much better choice

First she has to struggle some more, pretend to be appalled, pretend to come slowly to the idea, pretend to talk herself into it Too-quick agree a double cross

Tomaso waits patiently—or is it cynically—as sheherself, coe, which do not move Tomaso at all