us oration. It affected to explain, with a politeness of
terms and a calculated insolence of tone; whilst in fact it could only
serve to stimulate and goad a man of M. de Vilmorin's opinions. And that
is precisely what it did. He rose.

"Are there in the world no laws but game laws?" he demanded, angrily.
"Have you never by any chance heard of the laws of humanity?"

The Marquis sighed wearily. "What have I to do with the laws of
humanity?" he wondered.

M. de Vilmorin looked at him a moment in speechless amazement.

"Nothing, M. le Marquis. That is--alas!--too obvious. I hope you will
remember it in the hour when you may wish to appeal to those laws which
you now deride."

M. de La Tour d'Azyr threw back his head sharply, his high-bred face
imperious.

"Now what precisely shall that mean? It is not the first time to-day
that you have made use of dark sayings that I could almost believe to
veil the presumption of a threat."

"Not a threat, M. le Marquis--a warning. A warning that such deeds as
these against God's creatures... Oh, you may sneer, monsieur, but they
are God's creatures, even as you or I--neither more nor less, deeply
though the reflection may wound your pride, In His eyes..."

"Of your charity, spare me a sermon, M. l'abbe!"

"You mock, monsieur. You laugh. Will you laugh, I wonder, when God
presents His reckoning to you for the blood and plunder with which your
hands are full?"

"Monsieur!" The word, sharp as the crack of a whip, was from M.
de Chabrillane, who bounded to his feet. But instantly the Marquis
repressed him.

"Sit down, Chevalier. You are interrupting M. l'abbe, and I should like
to hear him further. He interests me profoundly."

In the background Andre-Louis, too, had risen, brought to his feet by
alarm, by the evil that he saw written on the handsome face of M. de La
Tour d'Azyr. He approached, and touched his friend upon the arm.

"Better be going, Philippe," said he.

But M. de Vilmorin, caught in the relentless grip of passions long
repressed, was being hurried by them recklessly along.

"Oh, monsieur," said he, "consider what you are and what you will be.
Consider how you and your kind live by abuses, and consider the harvest
that abuses must ultimately bring."

"Revolutionist!" said M. le Marquis, contemptuously. "You have the
effrontery to stand before my face and offer me this stinking cant of
your modern so-called intellectuals!"

"Is it cant, monsieur? Do you