ing to myself. Now I will have you in spite of all. I will
break you, and soothe your hurt afterwards. I will, by the face of the
Madonna, I will feed where this Moray would pasture, I will gather this
ripe fruit!"

With a devilish swiftness he caught her about the waist, and kissed her
again and again upon the mouth.

The blood was pounding in my veins, and I would have rushed in then and
there, have ended the long strife, and have dug revenge for this outrage
from his heart, but that I saw Alixe did not move, nor make the least
resistance. This struck me with horror, till, all at once, he let her
go, and I saw her face. It was very white and still, smooth and cold as
marble. She seemed five years older in the minute.

"Have you quite done, monsieur?" she said, with infinite quiet scorn.
"Do you, the son of a king, find joy in kissing lips that answer
nothing, a cheek from which the blood flows in affright and shame? Is it
an achievement to feed as cattle feed? Listen to me, Monsieur Doltaire.
No, do not try to speak till I have done, if your morality--of
manners--is not all dead. Through this cowardly act of yours, the last
vestige of your power over me is gone. I sometimes think that, with you,
in the past, I have remained true and virtuous at the expense of the
best of me; but now all that is over, and there is no temptation--I feel
beyond it: by this hour here, this hour of sore peril, you have freed
me. I was tempted--Heaven knows, a few minutes ago I was tempted, for
everything was with you; but God has been with me, and you and I are no
nearer than the poles."

"You doubt that I love you?" he said in an altered voice.

"I doubt that any man will so shame the woman he loves," she answered.

"What is insult to-day may be a pride to-morrow," was his quick reply.
"I do not repent of it, I never will, for you and I shall go to-night
from here, and you shall be my wife; and one day, when this man is dead,
when you have forgotten your bad dream, you will love me as you can not
love him. I have that in me to make you love me. To you I can be loyal,
never drifting, never wavering. I tell you, I will not let you go. First
my wife you shall be, and after that I will win your love; in spite
of all, mine now, though it is shifted for the moment. Come, come,
Alixe"--he made as if to take her hand--"you and I will learn the
splendid secret--"

She drew back to the shrine of the Virgin.

"Mother of God! Mother of God!"