. It also tolled slowly when the curtain rose upon the scene of
the Crucifixion. In this act no one spoke save the abased Magdalene, who
knelt at the foot of the cross, and on whose hair red drops fell when
the Roman soldier pierced the side of the figure on the cross. This had
been the Cure's idea. The Magdalene should speak for mankind, for the
continuing world. She should speak for the broken and contrite heart in
all ages, should be the first-fruits of the sacrifice, a flower of the
desert earth, bedewed by the blood of the Prince of Peace.

So, in the long nights of the late winter and early spring, the Cure had
thought and thought upon what the woman should say from the foot of the
cross. At last he put into her mouth that which told the whole story of
redemption and deliverance, so far as his heart could conceive it--the
prayer for all sorts and conditions of men and the general thanksgiving
of humanity.

During the last three days Paulette Dubois had taken the part of Mary
Magdalene. As Jo Portugais had confessed to the Abbe that notable day in
the woods at Vadrome Mountain, so she had confessed to the Cure after
so many years of agony--and the one confession fitted into the other: Jo
had once loved her, she had treated him vilely, then a man had wronged
her, and Jo had avenged her--this was the tale in brief. She it was who
laughed in the gallery of the court-room the day that Joseph Nadeau was
acquitted.

It had pained and shocked the Cure more than any he had ever heard, but
he urged for her no penalty as Portugais had set for himself with the
austere approval of the Abbe. Paulette's presence as the Magdalene had
had a deep effect upon the people, so that she shared with Mary the
Mother the painfully real interest of the vast audience.

Five times had the bell rung out in the perfect spring air, upon which
the balm of the forest and the refreshment of the ardent sun were
poured. The quick anger of M. Rossignol had passed away long before the
Cure, the Abbe, and himself had reached the lake and the great plateau.
Between the acts the two brothers walked up and down together, at peace
once more, and there was a suspicious moisture in the Seigneur's eyes.
The demeanour of the people had been so humble and rapt that the place
and the plateau and the valley seemed alone in creation with the lofty
drama of the ages.

The Cure's eyes shone when he saw on a little knoll in the trees, apart
from the worshippers a