s voice rang harsh
with determination.

She bit her lip under cover of her bent head. If she had hated him
before how much more did she not hate him now? And but a moment back it
had seemed to her that she had loved him. She had held out her hands to
him and he had scorned them; in her eagerness she had been unmaidenly,
and all that she had earned had been humiliation. She quivered with
shame and anger, and sinking into the nearest chair she burst into a
passion of tears.

Thus by accident did she stumble upon the very weapon wherewith to make
an utter rout of all Caron's resolutions. For knowing nothing of the
fountain from which those tears were springing, and deeming them the
expression of a grief pure and unalloyed--saving, perhaps, by a worthy
penitence--he stepped swiftly to her side.

"Mademoiselle," he murmured, and his tone was as gentle and beseeching
as it had lately been imperious. "Nay, Mademoiselle, I implore you!"

But her tears continued, and her sobs shook the slender frame as if to
shatter it. He dropped upon his knees. Scarcely knowing what he did, he
set his arm about her waist in a caress of protection.

A long curl of her black, unpowdered hair lay against his cheek.

"Mademoiselle," he murmured, and she took comfort at the soothing tone.

From it she judged him malleable now, that had been so stern and
unyielding before. She raised her eyes, and through her tears she turned
their heavenly blue full upon the grey depths of his.

"You will not believe me, Monsieur," she complained softly. "You will
not believe that I can have changed with the times; that I see things
differently now. If you were to come to me again as in the woods at
Bellecour--" She paused abruptly, her cheeks flamed scarlet, and she
covered them with her hands.

"Suzanne!" he cried, seeking to draw those hands away. "Is it true,
this? You care, beloved!"

She uncovered her face at last. Again their eyes met.

"I was right," she whispered. "Love never dies, you see."

"And you will marry me, Suzanne?" he asked incredulously.

She inclined her head, smiling through her tears, and he would have
caught her to him but that she rose of a sudden.

"Hist!" she cried, raising her finger: "someone is coming."

He listened, holding his breath, but no sound stirred. He went to the
door and peered out. All was still. But the interruption served
to impress him with the fact that time was speeding, and that all
unsuspicious tho