I would marry anybody if he would only let me see you--alone--for a
moment, even. What difference, so long as I could not be yours? I
came to tell you that I loved you, and because of that to beg you to
live, to give up that Eagle. What is it, a mere casting of metal,
valueless. Don't look at me with that hard, set face. Let me kiss the
line of your lips into softness again. I cannot be your wife, but at
least you will live. I will know that somewhere you think of me."

"And would death make a difference? High in the highest heaven, should
I be so fortunate as to achieve it, I would think of you; and, if I
were to be sent to the lowest hell, I could forget it all in thinking
of you."

"Yes, yes, I know how you love, because----"

"Because why?"

"I won't hesitate now. It may be unmaidenly, but I know, because I,
too----"

"Laure!" cried the man, sweeping her to him again.

"I think I loved you when we were boy and girl together," said the
woman, throwing everything to the winds in making her great confession.
"I know I loved you that night in the chateau, although I would not
admit it, and I treated you so cruelly. And when they told me you were
dead, then, then, my heart broke. And when you came here and I saw you
two men together--oh, I had made the contrast in my imagination--but
last night I saw and now I see. Oh, you will live, live. What is
honor compared to a woman's heart? See, I am at your feet. You will
not break me. You will live. Something may happen. I am not married
yet. The Emperor may come back."

"The boy, Pierre, said last night that it was rumored----"

"Yes, he gave me a message. I almost forgot it." She held out the
violet crushed in her fevered palm. "He said to tell you that the
violet has bloomed."

"Does he mean----?"

"I know not what he means."

"It is but an assurance begot of hope," said Marteau.

"And if it were so?"

"He comes too late. Rise, my lady. It is not meet for you to kneel.
Let me lift you up, up to my heart. I cannot give up the Eagle. That
I have won your love is the most wonderful thing in all the world. It
passes my understanding, the understanding of man, but I should forfeit
it if I should permit myself this shame."

"Then I will do it, I will betray you," said the little Countess
desperately. "I alone know where that Eagle is. I will get it. I
will bargain with my uncle for your life. Marteau, listen. Do you
wish to cond