is so, what has it to do with me?" I cried.

"You know!" he answered. "In your heart you know! Yet, if you
will--listen!" he continued, in a low tone. "You love Paul de Vaux!"

"It is true!"

"And you believe that he loves you?"

"I do!"

"Listen, then! Three nights ago I lifted that curtain, by the side of
one who has left you for ever, and I saw you in his arms. I followed
him out of the house; I walked by his side to Vaux Abbey, and I told
him what I have told you. I wasted no time in idle threats. I told him
what power was mine, and I said 'Choose!' He was silent!"

"Choose between what?" I interrupted.

"I bade him swear that he would never willingly look upon your face
again, or prepare himself to face all the evils which it was in my
power to bring upon him."

"And he?"

"He asked for time--for a week!"

A storm of anger was suddenly stirred up within me. I turned upon him
with flashing eyes and quivering lips. Discretion and restraint were
gone; I was like a tigress. I lacked only the power to kill.

"And by what right did you dare to thrust yourself between us?" I
cried. "What have I to do with you, or you with me?"

He held up his hands for a moment, as though to shut out the sight of
my face, ablaze with scorn and hatred. There was a short silence. Then
he spoke in a low tone, vibrating with intensity of feeling.

"You know! In your heart you know!" he said. "Into my life has come
the greatest humiliation which can befall such as I am! In sorrow and
bitterness it has eaten itself into my heart. I am accursed in my own
sight, and in the sight of God!"

I mocked at him. "I am not your confessor!" I laughed. "Go and tell
your sins to those of your own order! I am a woman and you are a
priest! Why do you look at me with that light in your eyes? Am I a
prayer-book? Is there anything saintly in my face, that you should
keep your eyes fixed upon it so steadily?"

I had hoped that my words would madden him, and he would lose his
self-control. To my surprise, they had but little effect. He seemed
scarcely to have heard.

"What have you to do with me, or I with you?" he repeated, in a voice
which was rapidly gaining strength and passion. "God knows! Yet as
surely as we both live, our lots are intertwined the one with the
other."

"A godly priest!" I laughed. "What have you to do with me? What
of your vows? Oh, how dare you try to play the lover with me! You
hypocrite!"

He shrank back as thoug