lle, some in Vincennes
Dungeon, nobody will ever know exactly which. That is all, ladies."

"Let us thank the saints for Mademoiselle's deliverance!" cried the
Princess piously.

Cyrene gasped and said nothing, but tears filled her eyes.

"The horror of but touching one of those creatures--those diners in the
kitchen!" exclaimed the Canoness.

"Of his daring to approach a lady in marriage!" added Mademoiselle de
Richeval.

"Were she one of _my_ blood, he should die," asserted d'Estaing.

An uncanny, silent light passed across the half-shut eyes of Abbe Jude,
and gleamed towards one and another of these haughty exclusives as they
talked together so regardlessly before the face of him they thought the
only plebeian among them. His eye at last met that of Lecour, and he
caught a confusion on the Canadian's countenance which he stored away
carefully with the words of de Bailleul.

The evening fell, and a faint silver moon rose in the sky and grew
brighter and brighter over park and mere. The Princess went in to play
cards, followed by the others. Germain and the Baroness walked up and
down the terrace alone, talking of the stars and the delightful
speculations about them in the book of Fontenelle.

Under the moonlight the girl's fragile beauty wove its fascination
deeper over him. He launched himself upon the strange sea of emotions
which were more and more crowding upon him.

"Oh, my God!" he thought, "am I walking the celestial gardens? Am I a
spirit doomed to banishment? Am I at the same moment both ravished and
damned?"

Once when they came to the end of the terrace they leaned on the
balustrade and looked down at the water. Glossy dark in the shadows of
the old castle which stood in its midst, and in those of the grove on
the further side, it glittered tranquilly where the moonshine fell on
its surface, and the foliage around it wore a soft, glittering veil.
Some mighty witch, some spirit combining Beauty, Power, and the
Centuries, seemed to reign over the lake, holding silent court in the
peaked and clustered white walls and turrets of the ancient stronghold.

"Mademoiselle," he said very quietly, "_I_ have reason to be silent; but
tell me why _you_ are so pensive?"

"I was sad for my friend Helene. Love must be so sacred."

"Did you know her suitor?"

"Sillon--yes; he had _dared_ to speak to me."

They were silent. It was not he who next spoke. Her clear eyes looked as
if into his soul as she said