ts feudal towers, and its gorse. Never did any woman stand on a finer
scene to make a great avowal.

"But," she continued, "I do not belong to myself; I am more bound by my
own will than I was by the law. You must be punished for my misdeed,
but be satisfied to know that we suffer together. Dante never saw his
Beatrice again; Petrarch never possessed his Laura. Such disasters fall
on none but noble souls. But, if I should be abandoned, if I fall lower
yet into shame and ignominy, if your Beatrix is cruelly misjudged by
the world she loathes, if indeed she is the lowest of women,--then, my
child, my adored child," she said, taking his hand, "to you she will
still be first of all; you will know that she rises to heaven as
she leans on you; but then, my friend," she added, giving him an
intoxicating look, "then if you wish to cast her down do not fail of
your blow; after your love, death!"

Calyste clasped her round the waist and pressed her to his heart. As if
to confirm her words Madame de Rochefide laid a tender, timid kiss upon
his brow. When they turned and walked slowly back; talking together like
those who have a perfect comprehension of each other,--she, thinking she
had gained a truce, he not doubting of his happiness; and both deceived.
Calyste, from what Camille had told him, was confident that Conti would
be enchanted to find an opportunity to part from Beatrix; Beatrix,
yielding herself up to the vagueness of her position, looked to chance
to arrange the future.

They reached Les Touches in the most delightful of all states of mind,
entering by the garden gate, the key of which Calyste had taken with
him. It was nearly six o'clock. The luscious odors, the warm atmosphere,
the burnished rays of the evening sun were all in harmony with their
feelings and their tender talk. Their steps were taken in unison,--the
gait of all lovers,--their movements told of the union of their
thoughts. The silence that reigned about Les Touches was so profound
that the noise which Calyste made in opening and shutting the gate must
have echoed through the garden. As the two had said all to each other
that could be said, and as their day's excursion, so filled with
emotion, had physically tired them, they walked slowly, saying nothing.

Suddenly, at the turn of a path, Beatrix was seized with a horrible
trembling, with that contagious horror which is caused by the sight of a
snake, and which Calyste felt before he saw the cause o