y for thy
heritage by danger? Ah! true,' broke she in despondingly; _they have
made thee but a tool, and they would now make thee a sacrifice. A long
pause now ensued, and she sat with his hand pressed between both her own
in silence. At length a slight noise startled her; she turned her head,
and beheld the Pere Massoni standing close beside her. She arose at
once, and drew the folds of her veil more closely across her features.

'Is your visit over? If so, I would speak with you,' said the Pere.

She bowed her head in assent, and followed him from the room. Massoni
now led the way to the little tower which formed his study; entering
which, he motioned her to a seat, and having locked the door, took a
place in front of her.

'What say you of this young man?' said he, coldly and sternly. 'Will he
live?'

'He will live,' said she, in a low, soft voice.

'For that you pledge yourself; I mean, your skill and craft!'

'I have none, holy father--I have but that insight into human nature
which is open to all; but I can promise, that of his present malady he
will not die.'

'How call you his disease?'

'Some would name it atrophy; some low fever; some would say that an old
hereditary taint was slowly working its poisonous path through a once
vigorous frame.'

'How mean you by that; would you imply madness in his race?'

'There are many disordered in mind whom affluence presents as but
capricious,' said she, with a half supercilious accent.

'Be frank with me,' said he boldly, 'and say if you suspect derangement
here.'

'Holy father,' replied she, in the calm voice of one appealing to a
mature judgment, 'you, who read men's natures, as others do a printed
page, well know, that he who is animated strongly by some single
sentiment, which infuses itself into every thought, and every action,
pervading each moment of his daily life, so as to seem a centre around
which all events revolve--that such a man, in the world's esteem, is of
less sane mind than he who gives to fortune but a passing thought, and
makes life a mere game of accident. Between these two opposing states
this young man's mind now balances.'

'But cannot balance long,' muttered the Pere to himself, reflecting on
her words. 'Will his intellect bear the struggle?' asked he hastily.

'Ay, if not overtaxed.'

'I know your meaning; you have told himself that he is not equal to the
task before him; I heard and saw what passed between you; I know, too,
t