e of love consisted in my aiding you to repel the harm and to
triumph over your enemies at the risk of the greatest danger to myself?"

He shook his head resolutely.

"What other proof do you want?"

He intimated that he could do without any aid from her.

"I am sincere, I swear it!" she exclaimed.

"On what can you swear?"

"It would appear that you, whom people rate as a saint, and so just, do
not believe in repentance?"

"I do!"

"Then, I repent," said she, rolling her eyes like Magdalen in a Guido
picture.

"No; those repenting do not say so before they prove it--they give the
evidence and do not boast."

"But what if I have no time to wait?" she said piteously. "What if it is
necessary for my soul's sake and perhaps for yours, that I should tell
you at once what I intended to exhibit gradually when I arrived? make
the effort to believe me without delay, for one single minute may redeem
my blackened life and save all to come. Is it so hard for you to listen
to me, and to believe me?" she wailed. "It would only be renewing
an old habit of yours, for you used to love me, and ardently, too!
The first kiss you ever gave to a woman, and the only ones you ever
received from a woman, are mine! you see I do not doubt you, though
appearances were against you when I returned to this house. All your
chastity--enthusiasm--energy, love and faith--all were poured into this
bosom. Can these things be forgotten? No, no, never! I am sure that when
a man like you loves a woman like me, her memory never leaves him."

"You mistake!" he said dryly.

"And you, if you think that those fops at the marchioness' were not
tricked and fooled by me! even the cheat who induced me to leave my
home--you see, I am frank--he was my dupe, and I saw all the time his
inferiority to the husband whom I quitted. In that case, it was a
fortune that tempted me, for you know how pressed we were! But when
alone, sobered--horrified by the warning conveyed in the sudden death of
that man, I valued you correctly, and saw that I loved you above all
men. I was subjected to the power of goodness and loving which is
enthroned in you. All of a sudden, as you fell in love, I adored you,
and if only you could have been kept in ignorance of what I did, there
would have been no wife more faithful, devoted, submissive and loving
than your own Cesarine."

"Did I not forgive you when I learned of your faults?" he reproached
her.

"True, you pardoned me,"