azed sadly into the flushed
face.

"My poor Molly," she said hesitatingly, "this is dreadful! But I
too--I too was led into deceit, into folly." She blushed painfully. "I
would not blame you; it was not your fault that you were carried away
in his ship. You went only for my sake: I cannot forget that. Yet that
he should have this unhappy power over you too, you with your good
husband, you a married woman, oh, my poor sister, it is terrible! He
is a wicked man; I pray that he may yet repent."

"Heavens," interrupted Molly, her passion up in arms again, loosening
as she spoke her clasp upon her sister, and rising to her feet to look
down on her with withering scorn, "have I not made myself clear? Are
you deaf, stupid, as well as heartless? It is you--you--_you_ he
loves, _you_ he wants. What am I to him?" with a curious sob, half of
laughter, half of anguish. "Your pious fears are quite unfounded as
far as he is concerned--the wicked man, as you call him! Oh, he spurns
my love with as much horror as even you could wish!"

"Molly!"

"Ay--Molly, and Molly--how shocked you are! Yes, I love him, I don't
care who hears it. I love him--Adrian knows--he is not as virtuous as
you, evidently, for Adrian pities me. He is doing all he can, though
they say it is in vain, to get a reprieve for him--though I _do_ love
him! While you--you are too good, too immaculate even to soil your
dainty foot upon the floor of his prison, that floor that I could kiss
because his shoe has trod it. But it is impossible! no human being
could be so hard, least of all you, whom I have seen turn sick at the
sight of a dead worm--Madeleine----!"

Crouching down in the former imploring manner, while her breast heaved
with dry tearless sobs: "It cannot hurt you, you who loved him." And
then with the old pitiful cry, "it is the only thing he wants, and he
loves you."

Madeleine disengaged herself from the clinging hands with a gesture
almost of disgust.

"Listen to me," she said, after a pause, "try and compose yourself and
understand. All this month I have had time to think, to realise, to
pray. I have seen what the world is worth, that it is full of horror,
of sin, of trouble, of dreadful dissensions--that its sorrow far
outweighs its happiness. I _have_ suffered," her pretty lips quivered
an instant, but she hardened herself and went on, "but it is better
so--it was God's will, it was to show me where to find real comfort,
the true peace. I have