him, and
you shall go, if I have to drag you with these hands of mine."

Her grip was so fierce, her eyes so savage, the words so strange, that
Madeleine screamed faintly, "She is mad!" and was amazed that Miss
O'Donoghue did not rush to the rescue!

But Miss O'Donoghue, peering at her from the depths of her arm-chair,
merely said snappishly: "Ah, child, can't you say you will go, and
have done! Oughtn't you to be ashamed to be so hard-hearted?" and
mopped her perspiring and agitated countenance with her kerchief. Then
upon the girl's bewildered mind dawned a glimmer of the truth; and,
blushing to the roots of her hair, she looked at her sister with a
growing horror.

"Oh, Molly, Molly!" she said again, with a sort of groan.

"Will you go?" cried Molly from between her set teeth.

Again the girl shuddered.

"Less than ever--now," she murmured. And as Molly threw her from her,
almost with violence, she covered her face with her hands and fell,
weeping bitter tears, upon the couch behind her.

Lady Landale, with great steps, stormed up and down the room, her eyes
fixed on space, her lips moving; now and again a word escaped her
then, sometimes hurled at her sister, sometimes only in desperate
communing with herself.

"Base, cowardly, mean! Oh, my God, cruel--cruel! To go back without
her."

After a little, with a sudden change of mood, she halted and stood a
while, as if in deep reflection, holding her hand to her head, then
crossing the room hurriedly, she knelt down, and flung her arms round
the weeping figure.

"_Ma petite Madeleine_," she said in a voice of the most piteous
pleading, "thou and I, we were always good friends; thou canst not
have the heart to be so cruel to me now. See, my darling, he must die,
they say--oh, Madeleine, Madeleine! And he asked for you. The one
thing, he told Rene, the only thing we could do for him on earth was
to let him see you once more. My little sister, you cannot refuse: he
loves you. What has he done to offend you? Your pride cannot forgive
him for being what he is, I suppose; yet such as he is you should be
proud of him. He is too noble, too straightforward to have
intentionally deceived you. If he did wrong, it was for love of you.
Madeleine, Madeleine!"

Her tones trailed away into a moan.

Miss O'Donoghue sobbed loudly from her corner. Madeleine, who had
looked at her sister at first with repulsion, seemed moved; she
placed her hands upon her shoulders, and g