Presently she opened a quaint , inlaid box and took from it a shining gold chain of rare workmanship and exquisite design , and this she hung around my neck , nor would suffer me to thank her but laid her hand gently on my lips . `` Now go , '' she said . `` But ere you leave me , little Beatrice , grant me but the one favour -- it may be that I shall never ask another of you . Your people , I know -- those cold Montressors -- care little for me , but with all my faults , I have ever been kind to you . So , when the morrow 's come , and they tell you that Alicia is as one worse than dead , think not of me with scorn only but grant me a little pity -- for I was not always what I am now , and might never have become so had a little child like you been always anear me , to keep me pure and innocent . And I would have you but the once lay your arms about my neck and kiss me . '' And I did so , wondering much at her manner -- for it had in it a strange tenderness and some sort of hopeless longing . Then she gently put me from the room , and I sat musing by the hall window until night fell darkly -- and a fearsome night it was , of storm and blackness . And I thought how well it was that my Uncle Hugh had not to return in such a tempest . Yet , ere the thought had grown cold , the door opened and he strode down the hall , his cloak drenched and wind-twisted , in one hand a whip , as though he had but then sprung from his horse , in the other what seemed like a crumpled letter . Nor was the night blacker than his face , and he took no heed of me as I ran after him , thinking selfishly of the sweetmeats he had promised to bring me -- but I thought no more of them when I got to the door of the Red Room . Alicia stood by the table , hooded and cloaked as for a journey , but her hood had slipped back , and her face rose from it marble-white , save where her wrathful eyes burned out , with dread and guilt and hatred in their depths , while she had one arm raised as if to thrust him back . As for my uncle , he stood before her and I saw not his face , but his voice was low and terrible , speaking words I understood not then , though long afterwards I came to know their meaning . And he cast foul scorn at her that she should have thought to fly with her lover , and swore that naught should again thwart his vengeance , with other threats , wild and dreadful enough . Yet she said no word until he had done , and then she spoke , but what she said I know not , save that it was full of hatred and defiance and wild accusation , such as a mad woman might have uttered . And she defied him even then to stop her flight , though he told her to cross that threshold would mean her death ; for he was a wronged and desperate man and thought of nothing save his own dishonour . Then she made as if to pass him , but he caught her by her white wrist ; she turned on him with fury , and I saw her right hand reach stealthily out over the table behind her , where lay the dagger . `` Let me go ! '' she hissed . And he said , `` I will not . ''
Then she turned herself about and struck at him with the dagger -- and never saw I such a face XXXXX was hers at the moment .
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