ands under your roof; I am going away, leaving nothing
of _my crime_" (here his lips were compressed) "but the memory; I have
tried to leave no trace of my presence in this house. Indeed, I would
not even allow your daughter to--"

"_My daughter_!" cried the General, with a horror-stricken glance at
Helene. "Vile wretch, go, or I will kill you--"

"The two hours are not yet over," said the other; "if you kill me or
give me up, you must lower yourself in your own eyes--and in mine."

At these last words, the General turned to stare at the criminal in dumb
amazement; but he could not endure the intolerable light in those eyes
which for the second time disorganized his being. He was afraid of
showing weakness once more, conscious as he was that his will was weaker
already.

"An old man! You can never have seen a family," he said, with a father's
glance at his wife and children.

"Yes, an old man," echoed the stranger, frowning slightly.

"Fly!" cried the General, but he did not dare to look at his guest. "Our
compact is broken. I shall not kill you. No! I will never be purveyor to
the scaffold. But go out. You make us shudder."

"I know that," said the other patiently. "There is not a spot on French
soil where I can set foot and be safe; but if man's justice, like God's,
took all into account, if man's justice deigned to inquire which was the
monster--the murderer or his victim--then I might hold up my head among
my fellows. Can you not guess that other crimes preceded that blow from
an axe? I constituted myself his judge and executioner; I stepped in
where man's justice failed. That was my crime. Farewell, sir. Bitter
though you have made your hospitality, I shall not forget it. I shall
always bear in my heart a feeling of gratitude towards one man in the
world, and you are that man.... But I could wish that you had showed
yourself more generous!"

He turned towards the door, but in the same instant Helene leaned to
whisper something in her mother's ear.

"Ah!..."

At the cry that broke from his wife, the General trembled as if he had
seen Moina lying dead. There stood Helene and the murderer had turned
instinctively, with something like anxiety about these folk in his face.

"What is it, dear?" asked the General.

"Helene wants to go with him."

The murderer's face flushed.

"If that is how my mother understands an almost involuntary
exclamation," Helene said in a low voice, "I will fulfil her wishes. Sh