and for supremacy over
my jealous and envious sex!"

Angelique was not one to quail when she entered the battle in pursuit
of any object of ambition or fancy. "I never saw the man yet," said she,
"whom I could not bring to my feet if I willed it! The Chevalier Bigot
would be no exception--that is, he would be no exception"--the voice
of Angelique fell into a low, hard monotone as she finished the
sentence--"were he free from the influence of that mysterious woman at
Beaumanoir, who, they say, claims the title of wife by a token which
even Bigot may not disregard! Her pleading eyes may draw his compassion
where they ought to excite his scorn. But men are fools to woman's
faults, and are often held by the very thing women never forgive. While
she crouches there like a lioness in my path the chances are I shall
never be chatelaine of Beaumanoir--never, until she is gone!"

Angelique fell into a deep fit of musing, and murmured to herself, "I
shall never reach Bigot unless she be removed--but how to remove her?"

Ay, that was the riddle of the Sphinx! Angelique's life, as she had
projected it, depended upon the answer to that question.

She trembled with a new feeling; a shiver ran through her veins as if
the cold breath of a spirit of evil had passed over her. A miner, boring
down into the earth, strikes a hidden stone that brings him to a dead
stand. So Angelique struck a hard, dark thought far down in the depths
of her secret soul. She drew it to the light, and gazed on it shocked
and frightened.

"I did not mean that!" cried the startled girl, crossing herself. "Mere
de Dieu! I did not conceive a wicked thought like that! I will not! I
cannot contemplate that!" She shut her eyes, pressing both hands over
them as if resolved not to look at the evil thought that, like a spirit
of darkness, came when evoked, and would not depart when bidden. She
sprang up trembling in every limb, and supporting herself against a
table, seized a gilded carafe and poured out a full goblet of wine,
which she drank. It revived her fainting spirit. She drank another, and
stood up herself again, laughing at her own weakness.

She ran to the window, and looked out into the night. The bright stars
shone overhead; the lights in the street reassured her. The people
passing by and the sound of voices brought back her familiar mood. She
thought no more of the temptation from which she had not prayed to be
delivered, just as the daring skater for