Chauxville was
the sort of person he is. I allowed him to find out things about me
which he never should have known--my own private affairs, I mean. Then I
became frightened, and he tried to make use of me. I think he makes use
of every-body. _You_ know what he is."

"Yes," answered Paul, "I know."

"He hates you," she went on. "I do not want to make mischief, but I
suppose he wanted to marry the princess. His vanity was wounded because
she preferred you, and he wanted to be avenged upon you. Wounds to the
vanity never heal. I do not know how he did it, Paul, but he made me
help him in his schemes. I could have prevented you from going to the
bear hunt, for I suspected him then. I could have prevented my mother
from inviting him to Thors. I could have put a thousand difficulties in
his way, but I did not. I helped him. I told him about the people and
who were the worst--who had been influenced by the Nihilists and who
would not work. I allowed him to stay on here and carry out his plan.
All this trouble among the peasants is his handiwork. He has organized a
regular rising against you. He is horribly clever. He left us yesterday,
but I am convinced that he is in the neighborhood still."

She stopped and reflected. There was something wanting in the story,
which she could not supply. It was a motive. A half-confession is almost
an impossibility. When we speak of ourselves it must be all or
nothing--preferably, nothing.

"I do not know why I did it," she said. "It was a sort of period I went
through. I cannot explain."

He did not ask her to do so. They were singularly like brother and
sister in their mental attitude. They had driven through twenty miles of
forest which belonged to one or other of them. Each was touched by the
intangible, inexplicable dignity that belongs to the possession of great
lands--to the inheritance of a great name.

"That is the confession," she said.

He gave a little laugh.

"If none of us had worse than that upon our consciences," he answered,
"there would be little harm in the world, De Chauxville's schemes have
only hurried on a crisis which was foreordained. The progress of
humanity cannot be stayed. They have tried to stay it in this country.
They will go on trying until the crash comes. What is the favor you have
to ask?"

"You must leave Osterno," she urged earnestly; "it is unsafe to delay
even a few hours. M. de Chauxville said there would be no danger. I
believed him then