upright of the scaffolding and passed a
trembling hand over his forehead. "Forgive me, Joan, if I have spoken
harshly!" he muttered in the dubious voice of a man who hardly knows
what he is saying.

"There is nothing to forgive. It is I, rather, who should seek
forgiveness from you for imposing this cruel test of friendship. But
what can I do, Felix? I am a woman and alone, and, when I think of what
lies before me, I am afraid."

With a great effort he steadied himself. Placing both hands on the
girl's shoulders, he turned her face to the light that fell from a small
rose window in a side aisle. In silence he looked at her, seeking to
wring the secret of this madness from her steadfast eyes.

"_Ma belle_," he cried suddenly, "I am beginning to believe that you are
in earnest."

"No matter how many years it may please God to leave me on earth, I
shall never be more resolved on anything than on my departure from
Delgratz to-night."

"You place trust in me, you say in one breath, yet you deny it in
another. Tell me then, Joan, what is the obstacle that has arisen to
prevent you from marrying Alec? It all hinges on that. Who has been
lying to you?"

She could not continue to meet his accusing eyes. It seemed to her that
if he urged her more her heart would burst. Yielding to the impulse of
the hunted animal, she wrenched herself free and turned to run
somewhere, anywhere, so that she might avoid his merciless inquisition.
A harsh laugh fell on her ears, and nothing more effective to put a stop
to her flight could have been devised.

"Name of a name!" he roared, "shall we not take our pictures? If we are
false to all else, let us at least be true to our harmless daubs!"

The taunt was undeserved and glanced unheeded from the shield of the
girl's utter misery. Perhaps because that was so, the Pole's next words
were tender and soothing.

"Come, then, my Joan," he growled, "never shall it be said against me
that I deserted a comrade in distress. I hoped to see you happily
wedded. It was my fantasy that Alec and you would inaugurate a new line
of monarchs and thus bring about the social revolution from an
unexpected quarter. But I was mistaken. Holy blue! never was man so led
astray since Eve strolled into the wrong orchard and brought Adam with
her!"

By this time he had caught her. He held her arm, and began to stroke one
of her hands softly as if she had shown symptoms of falling in a faint.
"We will go, _mignon