"
Ah, Dieu! To hear her confess it so! If yesternight it had stirred
me to the very depths of my poor, sinful soul to have her say so
much to me, how infinitely more did it not affect me to overhear
this frank avowal of it to another! And to think that she was
undergoing all this to the end that she might save me!
From Chatellerault there came an impatient snort in answer, and his
feet again smote the floor as he resumed the pacing that for
a moment he had suspended. Then followed a pause, a long silence,
broken only by the Count's restless walking to and fro. At last
"Why are you silent, monsieur?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"Helas, mademoiselle, I can do nothing. I had feared that it might
be thus with you; and, if I put the question, it was in the hope
that I was wrong."
"But he, monsieur?" she exclaimed in anguish. "What of him?"
"Believe me, mademoiselle, if it lay in my power I would save him
were he never so guilty, if only that I might spare you sorrow."
He spoke with tender regret, foul hypocrite that he was!
"Oh, no, no!" she cried, and her voice was of horror and despair.
"You do not mean that - " She stopped short; and then, after a
pause, it was the Count who finished the sentence for her.
"I mean, mademoiselle, that this Lesperon must die!"
You will marvel that I let her suffer so, that I did not break down
the partition with my hands and strike that supple gentleman dead at
her feet in atonement for the anguish he was causing her.
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