y begun to recognize, he would bring as a peace-offering
for his shortcoming, and for having so nearly been untrue to himself and
to his calling.

He sprang up and grasped the dean's hand. "Thank you! thank you! You
have saved me!" His eyes flashed, and his broad, powerful bosom seemed
to swell. At that moment the dean might have sent him to certain death,
and he would have obeyed.

As they drove back from Sandsgaard, the dean narrowly observed his young
friend. The visit at the Garmans' had not passed off quite so
successfully as some of the others which they had paid, where the
inspector's calm and genuine manner had made a favourable impression.
The dean thought, however, that it was better not to carry things too
far, now that they seemed to have taken a good direction. They did not,
therefore, pay any more visits, but drove home to the dean's to get a
cup of chocolate, which Miss Barbara had prepared for them.

Miss Cordsen had now two patients to attend to, for Rachel had also kept
her room for some days. The old lady went to and fro between the two. It
was not easy to discover how much she comprehended of it all. Her mouth,
surrounded by its innumerable wrinkles, was so tightly closed that
gossip was, for her, out of the question. Calmly and methodically did
Miss Cordsen carry on her duties. Both upstairs and down were to be seen
her well-starched cap-strings, and the faint, old-fashioned smell of
lavender seemed to hang in her very clothes.

Rachel sat for hours looking before her, without caring to do anything.
To think that this should be the end of all her hopes! Was it, then,
impossible to find a man with courage in his heart, and blood in his
veins? She felt that she was precluded from any line of action that
would really satisfy her, condemned as she was to a life of daily
drudgery; but her thoughts became more and more embittered, first
against him who had deceived her, and finally against the whole human
race.

Madeleine, on the contrary, had no feelings of this nature; but she had
a feeling of dread, which seemed daily to increase. She felt that the
duplicity of her friend was so great, so enormous, that it quite passed
her imagination; and then the thought that it must be he--he, to whom
alone, among all this world of strangers, she felt herself attracted on
the very ground of his sincerity! Again and again these thoughts arose
within her and tortured her. She felt as if her foothold must be
inse