he interior of the church, with an eye to their own
credit. It was a very plain, simple building, with but few images in it,
and only two or three votive pictures, very ugly, hanging between the
low Norman arches of the windows. A shrine occupied one transept, and
before it the offerings of flowers were daily renewed by the unmarried
girls of the village.

I sat down upon a bench just within the door, and the transept was not
in sight, but I could hear Pierre busy at his task of polishing the
oaken floor, by skating over it with brushes fastened to his feet. Jean
was bustling in and out of the sacristy, and about the high altar in the
chancel. There was a faint scent yet of the incense which had been
burned at the mass celebrated before the cure's departure, enough to
make the air heavy and to deepen the drowsiness and languor which were
stealing over me. I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes,
with a pleasant sense of sleep coming softly toward me, when suddenly a
hand was laid upon my arm, with a firm, close, silent gripe.

I do not know why terror always strikes me dumb and motionless. I did
not stir or speak, but looked steadily, with a fascinated gaze, into my
husband's face--a worn, white, emaciated face, with eyes peering cruelly
into mine. It was an awful look; one of dark triumph, of sneering,
cunning exultation. Neither of us spoke. Pierre I could hear still busy
in the transept, and Jean, though he had disappeared into the sacristy,
was within call. Yet I felt hopelessly and helplessly alone under the
cruel stare of those eyes. It seemed as if he and I were the only beings
in the whole world, and there was none to help, none to rescue. In the
voiceless depths of my spirit I cried, "O God!"

He sank down on the seat beside me, with an air of exhaustion, yet with
a low, fiendish laugh which sounded hideously loud in my ears. His
fingers were still about my arm, but he had to wait to recover from the
first shock of his success--for it had been a shock. His face was bathed
with perspiration, and his breath came and went fitfully. I thought I
could even hear the heavy throbbing of his heart. He spoke after a time,
while my eyes were still fastened upon him, and my ears listening to
catch the first words he uttered.

"I've found you," he said, his hand tightening its hold, and at the
first sound of his voice the spell which bound me snapped; "I've tracked
you out at last to this cursed hole. The ga