ble to keep my
mind from dwelling on this mysterious affair," she said slowly, "and I
think I have fathomed Tascheron's motive. I believe the person he loves
is a young girl, because a married woman has interests, if not feelings,
which partly fill her heart and prevent her from yielding so completely
to a great passion as to leave her home. There is such a thing as a love
proceeding from passion which is half maternal, and to me it is evident
that this man was loved by a woman who wished to be his prop, his
Providence. She must have put into her passion something of the genius
that inspires the work of artists and poets, the creative force which
exists in woman under another form; for it is her mission to create men,
not things. Our works are our children; our children are the pictures,
books, and statues of our lives. Are we not artists in their earliest
education? I say that this unknown woman, if she is not a young girl,
has never been a mother but is filled with the maternal instinct; she
has loved this man to form him, to develop him. It needs a feminine
element in you men of law to detect these shades of motive, which too
often escape you. If I had been your deputy," she said, looking straight
at the _procureur-general_, "I should have found the guilty woman, if
indeed there is any guilt about it. I agree with the Abbe Dutheil that
these lovers meant to fly to America with the money of old Pingret. The
theft led to the murder by the fatal logic which the punishment of
death inspires. And so," she added with an appealing look at Monsieur de
Grandville, "I think it would be merciful in you to abandon the theory
of premeditation, for in so doing you would save the man's life. He is
evidently a fine man in spite of his crime; he might, perhaps, repair
that crime by a great repentance if you gave him time. The works of
repentance ought to count for something in the judgment of the law. In
these days is there nothing better for a human being to do than to give
his life, or build, as in former times, a cathedral of Milan, to expiate
his crimes?"

"Your ideas are noble, madame," said Monsieur de Grandville, "but,
premeditation apart, Tascheron would still be liable to the penalty of
death on account of the other serious and proved circumstances attending
the crime,--such as forcible entrance and burglary at night."

"Then you think that he will certainly be found guilty?" she said,
lowering her eyelids.

"I am certain