With a fierce movement of his arm, he threw the woman away from him. Then he turned to the others, as though he were pushing them back. It was the same commanding movement that I had seen him make to the wolves. His voice was low, it was almost a whisper, but it seemed to cut through the air and then echo around the room. He said,

"How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you even look at him when I had forbidden it? Get back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware what you do with him, or you'll have to deal with me."

The fair girl turned to answer him with a hard, rude, laugh. "You yourself never loved. You never love!" When they heard this the other women laughed too, though they were not really amused. Their hard, cruel laughter echoed through the room. It almost made me faint to hear it because it sounded like the laughter of devils.

Then the Count turned to me. After looking at my face carefully, he said in a soft whisper, "Yes, I too can love. You yourselves know it from the past. Is that not true? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you can kiss him as much as you want. Now go! Go! I must wake him up, because there is work to do."