The old
leech who had been her stay and helper died, and left her to face the
danger alone. A month later Basterga discovered the secret and
henceforth held it over her. From this time she led a life of which
Claude, in his dreams upon the hearth, exaggerated neither the tragedy
nor the beauty. The load had been heavy before. Now to fear was added
contumely, and to vague apprehensions the immediate prospect of
discovery and peril. The grip of the big scholar, subtle, cruel,
tightening day by day and hour by hour, was on her youth; slowly it
paralysed in her all joy, all spirit, all the impulses of life and hope,
that were natural to her age.

That through all she showed an indomitable spirit, we know. We have seen
how she bore herself when threatened from an unexpected quarter on the
morning when Claude Mercier, after overhearing her mother's ravings, had
his doubts confirmed by the sight of her depression on the stairs. How
boldly she met his attack, unforeseen as it was, how bravely she
shielded her other and dearer self, how deftly she made use of the
chance which the young man's soberer sense afforded her, will be
remembered. But not even in that pinch, no, nor in that worse hour when
Basterga, having discovered his knowledge to her, gave her--as a cat
plays with a mouse which it is presently to tear to pieces--a little law
and a little space, did she come so near to despair as on this evening
when the echo of her mother's insane laughter drew her from the
living-room at an hour without precedent.

For hitherto Madame Royaume's attacks had come on in the night only.
With a regularity not unknown in the morbid world they occurred about
midnight, an hour when her daughter could attend to her and when the
house below lay wrapped in sleep. A change in this respect doubled the
danger, therefore. It did more: the prospect of being summoned at any
hour shook, if it did not break, the last remains of Anne's strength. To
be liable at all times to such interruptions, to tremble while serving a
meal or making a bed lest the dreadful sound arise and reveal all, to
listen below and above and never to feel safe for a minute, never!
never!--who could face, who could endure, who could lie down and rise up
under this burden?

It could not be. As Anne ascended the stairs she felt that the end was
coming, was come. Strive as she might, war as she might, with all the
instinct, all the ferocity, of a mother defending her young, the