d I left it
passively in their clasp.

"Mine!" he murmured.

"Olivia," he said, after a long pause, and in a stronger voice, "you
always spoke the truth to me. This priest and his follower have been
trying to frighten me into repentance, as if I were an old woman. They
say I am near dying. Tell me, is it true?"

The last words he had spoken painfully, dragging them one after another,
as if the very utterance of them was hateful to him. He looked at me
with his cold, glittering eyes, which seemed almost mocking at me, even
then.

"Richard," I said, "it is true."

"Good God!" he cried.

His lips closed after that cry, and seemed as if they would never open
again. He shut his eyes weariedly. Feebly and fitfully came his gasps
for breath, and he moaned at times. But still his fingers held me fast,
though the slightest effort of mine would have set me free. I left my
hand in his cold grasp, and spoke to him whenever he moaned.

"Martin," he breathed between his set teeth, though so low that only my
ear could catch the words, "Martin--could--have saved--me."

There was another long silence. I could hear the chirping of the
sparrows in the thatched roof, but no other sound broke the deep
stillness. Monsieur Laurentie and Tardif stood at the foot of the bed,
looking down upon us both, but I only saw their shadows falling across
us. My eyes were fastened upon the face I should soon see no more. The
little light there was seemed to be fading away from it, leaving it all
dark and blank; eyelids closed, lips almost breathless; an unutterable
emptiness and confusion creeping over every feature.

"Olivia!" he cried, once again, in a tone of mingled anger and
entreaty.

"I am here," I answered, laying my other hand upon his, which was at
last relaxing its hold, and falling away helplessly. But where was he?
Where was the voice which half a minute ago called Olivia? Where was
the life gone that had grasped my hand? He had not heard my answer, or
felt my touch upon his cold fingers.

Tardif lifted me gently from my place beside him, and carried me away
into the open air, under the overshadowing eaves.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND.

FREE.

The rest of that day passed by like a dream. Jean had come down with the
daily supply of food, and I heard Monsieur Laurentie call to him to
accompany me back to the presbytery, and to warn every one to keep away
from me, until I could take every precaution against spreading
i